NEURAL BASIS OF INTERNAL REPRESENTATION OF PLACE

儿童空间定向与学习的神经基础研究 啮齿动物目前为理论提供了一个极好的试验场。 这两个问题都涉及高级认知加工是如何在 神经系统与联想记忆的生物物理动力学 在神经网络中。海马区的神经元不仅出现在 构建空间位置和空间位置的分布式表示 定向，但也有能力回忆起这些 来自记忆的表征当可用感觉信息是 不完整。皮质结构中的神经元与 海马体似乎能跟踪动物在太空中的方位 独立于位置，部分是通过在 视觉地标和角速度信息的积分，在 其中至少有一部分起源于前庭系统。最后， 后顶叶皮质的神经元似乎编码了 空间位置与空间具体运动的相互作用 这样一种方式可以使 环境不同部分之间的关系。 建议的研究代表了正在进行的神经生理学的扩展 记录单个神经元的小集合的研究 从上述大脑皮层结构在空间行为期间 老鼠。主要的目标是明确地理解神经 通过这些高级空间计算的相互作用 进行了，更广泛地说，提供了概念性和经验性的 了解损害或损害的破坏性后果的框架 人脑中这些结构的功能障碍。

The study of the neural basis of spatial orientation and learning in rodents is currently providing an excellent testing ground for theories concerned both with how higher cognitive processing is carried out in the nervous system and with the biophysical dynamics of associative memory in neural networks. Neurons in the hippocampal formation appear not only to construct distributed representations of spatial location and orientation, but also to have the capability to recall these representations from memory when available sensory information is incomplete. Neurons in cortical structures intimately associated with the hippocampus appear to keep track of the animal's orientation in space independently of location, partly by making dynamic associations between visual landmarks and the integral of angular velocity information, at least some of which originates in the vestibular system. Finally, neurons in the posterior parietal cortex appear to code for the interaction between spatial location and specific movements in space in such a way as could enable the internal representation of the relationships among different parts of the environment. The studies proposed represent extensions of ongoing neurophysiological investigations in which small ensembles of single neurons are recorded from the aforementioned cortical structures during spatial behavior in rats. The principal goals are specifically to understand the neural interactions through which these high-level spatial computations are carried out, and more generally, to provide a conceptual and empirical framework for understanding the devastating consequences of damage or dysfunction in these structures in the human brain.