Category: Neural Basis of Navigation

How to unlock the secrets of three-dimensional navigation in the brains of bats?

Ziying Fu, Jia Tang, Qicai Chen. Neuroscientists are questing to unlock the secrets of three-dimensional navigation in the brains of bats. In Journal of Chinese Science Bulletin, Dec 13, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1360/TB-2019-0404.

Abstract
Unlocking the secrets of spatial orientation

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How do desert ants perform path integration in a three-dimensional world?

Ronacher, B. Path integration in a three-dimensional world: the case of desert ants. J Comp Physiol A (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-020-01401-1

Abstract
Desert ants use path integration to return from foraging excursions on a shortcut way to their nests. …

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How does the brain encode head motion?

Jean Laurens, Dora E. Angelaki. Simple spike dynamics of Purkinje cells in the macaque vestibulo-cerebellum during passive whole-body self-motion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2020, 201915873; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915873117

Significance
This study characterizes the response dynamics

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How spatial information is dynamically reactivated in sub-regions of the human MTL and how this reactivation guides recall of episodic information

Nora A. Herweg, Ashwini D. Sharan, Michael R. Sperling, Armin Brandt, Andreas Schulze-Bonhage and Michael J. Kahana. Reactivated spatial context guides episodic recall. Journal of Neuroscience 23 January 2020, 1640-19; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1640-19.2019

Abstract
“The medial temporal lobe (MTL) is …

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How does the brain’s compass system work in insects and mammals?

Hulse, Brad K., and Vivek Jayaraman. “Mechanisms Underlying the Neural Computation of Head Direction.” Annual Review of Neuroscience 43 (2019).

Abstract

Many animals use an internal sense of direction to guide their movements through the world. …

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How does the brain process the scale from a computational perspective?

Nicolai Waniek. Transition Scale-Spaces: A Computational Theory for the Discretized Entorhinal Cortex. Neural Computation 2020 32:2, 330-394

Abstract

“Although hippocampal grid cells are thought to be crucial for spatial navigation, their computational purpose remains disputed. Recently, they were proposed …

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How to achieve stable dynamics in neural circuits?

Leo Kozachkov, Mikael Lundqvist, Jean-Jacques Slotine, Earl K. Miller. Achieving stable dynamics in neural circuits. bioRxiv 2020.01.17.910174;  doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.17.910174

Abstract
“The brain consists of many interconnected networks with time-varying, partially autonomous activity. There are multiple sources of noise and

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How an ant navigates the desert?

Rüdiger Wehner. Desert Navigator: The Journey of an Ant [M]. Harvard University Press, 2020.

About the Book

“A world-renowned researcher of animal behavior reveals the extraordinary orienteering skills of desert ants, offering a thrilling account of the sophisticated ways insects

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How the human brain codes for current remote spatial target locations?

Tsitsiklis, Melina, Jonathan Miller, Salman E. Qasim, Cory S. Inman, Robert E. Gross, Jon R. Willie, Elliot H. Smith et al. “Single-neuron representations of spatial memory targets in humans.” BioRxiv (2019): 523753.

Highlights
• Epilepsy patients performed a …

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Whether self‐reported navigation ability is related to information transfer between optic flow‐sensitive (OF‐sensitive) cortical regions and regions important to navigation during environmental spatial tasks?

Zajac, Lauren, Heather Burte, Holly A. Taylor, and Ronald Killiany. “Self‐reported navigation ability is associated with optic flow‐sensitive regions’ functional connectivity patterns during visual path integration.” Brain and behavior 9, no. 4 (2019): e01236.

Abstract
Introduction
“Spatial navigation …

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How the running speed modulates the firing rate of the place cells?

McClain, Kathryn et al “Position–theta-phase model of hippocampal place cell activity applied to quantification of running speed modulation of firing rate.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2019): 201912792. Web. 20 Dec. 2019.

Significance
“The hippocampus is …

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How do backward walking ants cope with navigational uncertainty?

Sebastian Schwarz, Leo Clement, Evripides Gkanias, Antoine Wystrach. How do backward walking ants (Cataglyphis velox) cope with navigational uncertainty? bioRxiv 2019.12.16.877704; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2019.12.16.877704

ABSTRACT
“Current opinion in insect navigation assumes that animals need to align with the goal direction to …

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What could be the computational benefits of such a mapping between intrinsic dynamical structure and external sensory inputs for navigation in the brain?

Christian Leibold. A Model for Navigation in Unknown Environments Based on a Reservoir of Hippocampal Sequences
bioRxiv 2019.12.18.880583; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2019.12.18.880583

Abstract
“Hippocampal place cell populations are activated in sequences on multiple time scales during active behavior, resting and sleep …

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How to conduct a quantitative comparison of machine learning and statistical model-based decoding methods on HD cell activity?

Xu Z, Wu W, Winter SS, Mehlman ML, Butler WN, Simmons CM, Harvey RE, Berkowitz LE, Chen Y, Taube JS, Wilber AA and Clark BJ (2019) A Comparison of Neural Decoding Methods and Population Coding Across Thalamo-Cortical Head Direction Cells

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How the grid cells perform path integral, path planning and error correction?

Gao, Ruiqi & Xie, Jianwen & Zhu, Song & Wu, Yingnian.  Learning Grid Cells as Vector Representation of Self-Position Coupled with Matrix Representation of Self-Motion. ICLR 2019

Abstract

This paper proposes a representational model for grid cells. In

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