Updating head direction in a 3D world

啮齿动物大脑中的头部方向(HD)细胞编码动物面对的方向(“方位”)，并辅助导航和记忆所需的方向感。细胞对头部水平旋转(偏航)做出反应，但当动物在三维空间运动时，非偏航旋转也会改变方位，这可能会带来误差。该项目将通过记录探索复杂3D空间的小鼠的HD细胞，来研究HD细胞是否能够适应这些旋转，如果是的话，是如何进行的。使用转基因突变体，我们将检验这一假设，即非偏航旋转是由前庭小脑处理的，这防止了误差积累。

Head direction (HD) cells in the rodent brain encode the animal's facing direction ("azimuth") and subserve the sense of direction, needed for navigation and memory. The cells respond to horizontal head rotations ("yaw") but when the animal moves in three dimensions, non-yaw rotations also change the azimuth, which could introduce errors. This project will investigate whether HD cells can accommodate these rotations, and if so, how, by recording HD cells from mice exploring complex 3D space. Using transgenic mutants we will test the hypothesis that non-yaw rotations are processed by the vestibulocerebellum, which prevents error accumulation.