Framing the grid: Effect of boundaries on grid cells and navigation

Abstract

Cells in the mammalian hippocampal formation subserve neuronal representations of environmental location and support navigation in familiar environments. Grid cells constitute one of the main cell types in the hippocampal formation and are widely believed to represent a universal metric of space independent of external stimuli. Recent evidence showing that grid symmetry is distorted in non-symmetrical environments suggests that a re-examination of this hypothesis is warranted. In this review we will discuss behavioural and physiological evidence for how environmental shape and in particular enclosure boundaries influence grid cell firing properties. We propose that grid cells encode the geometric layout of enclosures.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

from Physiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1M8Ehvx
via IFTTT