Spatial Cognition: Hippocampus Flashcards
What kind of memory is the hippocampus heavily associated with?
episodic
What two other parts of the brain work with the basal ganglia?
hippocampus and cerebellum
What are the three ways that the basal ganglia, hippocampus, and cerebellum spread information?
convergence, divergence, and segregation
Name the three nuclei that form the hippocampus
- DG
- CA1
- CA3
What is the concept of reentry?
projecting back into the source from which its module gets its info
What is frame of reference?
understanding what relationship is the spatial area considered
What role does the cortex have in relation to the hippocampus, basal ganglia, and cerebellum?
-takes the information, throws it at these structures and sees how they interpret it (separately)
CA1 cells are far ______ (less/more) likely to synapse upon other CA1 neurons
less
What are the ways in which the brain understands depth perception?
- motion parallax
- texture gradient
- occlusion
- retinal disparity (stereopsis)
What does the entorhinal cortex do?
maps out space in a particular way
What are the 3 ways mammalian brains accomplish mapping?
- head direction cells
- grid cells
- place cells
What is an egocentric frame of reference?
- has to do more with the self
- not focused on the environment, mainly on the organism
What is an arbitrary frame of reference?
frames of reference that have to do with the environment
Indicate whether the following frame of references are an example of egocentric or arbitrary frame of reference:
object centered:
eye position:
route-centered:
object centered: arbitrary
eye position: egocentric
route-centered: arbitrary
Which structure of the brain contain all three cells that play a role in spatial cognition, namely head-direction cells, grid cells, and place cells?
Entorhinal cortex
_______ are cells whose firing is tuned to the orientation of the animal’s head relative to the boundaries of the environment.
Head direction cells
The direction in which a specific-head direction neuron fires most relative to other directions is known as its __________.
preferred firing direction
All head direction cells have the same preferred direction. (True/False)
False
Which cells play role in mapping position in environment by path integration?
Grid cells
Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex exhibit multiple firing fields in any given environment. These fields are arranged in a particular structure, known as _________.
tesselated triangles
_______ are cells whose firing is tuned to the position of the animal in the environment.
Place cells
Which structure(s) are place cells found?
hippocampus
entorhinal cortex
For a set of neurons in the hippocampus, firing rates across the full set describe the pattern of activity across the full population. What is this called?
population firing rate vector
What are the steps of the trisynaptic circuit?
- medial and lateral entorhinal cortex sends axons ot the same neurons of the dentate gyrus The information is mixed at the level of the DG
- The GD projects to the CA3
- CA3 neurons project to CA1
What information does CA3 combine?
information from entorhinal input and DG output (Which has processed entorhinal input)
What are conjuctive cells?
cells that respond to the grid direction and the head direction (respond only when going a particular direction through grid space)
Where are conjuctive cells found?
entorhinal cortex
What pathway does the EC medial receive inputs and sends outputs to and from?
neocortex “where pathway”
What pathway does the EC lateral receive inputs and sends outputs to and from?
neocortex “what pathway”
