CRCNS: US-Israel - The egocentric-allocentric transformation of the cognitive map

CRCNS：美国-以色列 - 认知地图的自我中心-非中心转变

• 批准号: 10440324
• 负责人: Vijay Balasubramanian
• 金额: $ 25.69万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10440324
• 关键词: Anatomy; Animals; Area; Behavior; Brain; Cells; Clinical; Code; Cognition; Cognitive; Complex; Computer Models; Confusion; Data; Dementia; Echolocation; Environment; Episodic memory; Generations; Geometry; Head; Hippocampal Formation; Hippocampus (Brain); Impairment; Individual; Instruction; Investigation; Israel; Learning; Light; Location; Maps; Measures; Medial; Modeling; Neurons; Neurosciences; Output; Patients; Population; Research; Rest; Sensory; Synapses; System; Techniques; Temporal Lobe; Testing; Theoretical model; Touch sensation; Tracer; Trauma; Vibrissae; Vision; Weight; Work; anatomical tracing; base; cell cortex; entorhinal cortex; experience; experimental study; impaired capacity; insight; novel; relating to nervous system; response; sensory input; statistics; theories

Animals have the striking ability to know where they are, and to plan where to go and how to get there. These abilities are likely based on a cognitive map, the brain’s internal representation of space. For 50 years we have known that hippocampal place cells are a component of the cognitive map, responding when an animal is in specific locations. We also know about other components of the map – e.g., grid cells, head-direction cells, and border cells. But we do not understand how the responses of such cells are generated from sensory experience. One puzzle is that sensory inputs are “egocentric” (centered and oriented in relation to the individual), whereas the cognitive map is “allocentric” (centered and oriented in relation to an absolute reference frame in the world). This raises a key question: how does the brain transform egocentric reference frames into allocentric ones to guide behavior? We focus on the part of the cognitive map representing boundaries. Boundaries are experienced egocentrically by animals, but in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and the subicular complex, borders are represented by allocentric boundary cells (ABCs). If ABCs can be generated from egocentric responses in upstream areas, their allocentricity could be propagated to the rest of the cognitive map via synaptic interactions. Recent work shows that the postrhinal cortex (POR), a principal area projecting to the MEC, contains cells with egocentric responses that may encode boundaries. In Aim 1, we propose that these are Egocentric Boundary Cells (EBCs) that efficiently encode orientations and distances to boundary segments, as subjectively experienced during navigation. We will test this idea by recording egocentric POR responses in environments of varying complexity, while testing the tuning of responses to spatial boundaries, and comparing to predictions of efficient coding theory. In Aim 2 we further propose a mechanism whereby EBC responses in POR are conjunctively and hierarchically combined with head-direction responses through Hebbian plasticity in the MEC, to produce ABC responses. We will test this mechanism through environmental manipulations and confusion experiments combined with neural recordings, for which we will have predictions from theoretical models. We will also perform anatomical studies and inactivation experiments to test how components of the network connect, and how functionality is modified when some parts of the network are inactivated. Our approach will achieve a significant milestone, uncovering circuits, brain areas, and mechanisms connecting sensory experience to the generation of the brain’s cognitive map, thus informing clinical approaches to deficits in navigation and episodicmemory. RELEVANCE (See instructions): This work will develop a systems-level understanding of circuits across brain areas that underpin spatial cognition, our ability to know where we are and to plan where we go. We must understand how the brain solves such spatial problems to treat impairment of the ability to navigate, a common deficit in patients with early stage dementia or temporal lobe trauma. As spatial cognition is closely tied to episodic memory and abstract navigation, this work will also help to guide clinical approaches to impairment of these capacities.

动物有惊人的能力知道自己在哪里，并计划去哪里和如何到达那里。这些 能力很可能建立在认知地图的基础上，这是大脑对空间的内部表示。50年来，我们 我知道海马区细胞是认知图谱的一个组成部分，当动物 都在特定的位置。我们还知道地图的其他组成部分--例如，网格单元、头部方向 单元格和边框单元格。但我们不了解这些细胞的反应是如何从感觉中产生的 经验。一个令人困惑的问题是，感觉输入是“以自我为中心的”(相对于 个体)，而认知地图是“以分配为中心的”(相对于绝对的 世界上的参照系)。这就提出了一个关键问题：大脑如何转变以自我为中心的参照 用来指导行为的外框吗？我们关注的是认知地图中代表 边界。动物的边界是以自我为中心的，但在内侧内嗅皮层(MEC) 和下复合体，边界由局部着丝粒边界细胞(ABC)表示。如果ABC可以 从上游地区以自我为中心的反应产生的，他们的分配中心性可以传播到其他地区 通过突触相互作用的认知图谱。最近的研究表明，后皮质(POR)是一种主要的 投射到MEC的区域包含具有可能编码边界的以自我为中心的反应的细胞。在目标1中， 我们认为这些是以自我为中心的边界细胞(EBCs)，它们有效地编码方向和 到边界段的距离，如在航行过程中主观体验的距离。我们将通过以下方式测试这一想法 在不同复杂性的环境中记录以自我为中心的POR响应，同时测试 对空间边界的响应，并与有效编码理论的预测进行比较。在目标2中，我们进一步 提出一种机制，使POR中的EBC响应与 头部反应通过MEC中的Hebbian可塑性，产生ABC反应。我们将测试 这一机制通过环境操纵和混淆实验结合神经 录音，我们将从理论模型中对其进行预测。我们还会表演解剖学 研究和停用实验，以测试网络组件如何连接以及功能如何 在网络的某些部分被停用时被修改。我们的方法将实现一个重要的里程碑， 揭示回路、大脑区域和将感觉体验与产生 大脑的认知图谱，从而为临床解决导航和情景记忆障碍的方法提供信息。 相关性(请参阅说明)： 这项工作将在系统层面上理解构成空间基础的大脑区域之间的回路 认知，我们知道自己在哪里并计划去哪里的能力。我们必须了解大脑是如何 解决这样的空间问题来治疗导航能力受损，这是一种常见的 早期痴呆或颞叶创伤。因为空间认知与情景记忆密切相关 摘要导航，这项工作也将有助于指导临床方法，以损害这些能力。