A computational model of the interaction between external and internal cues for the control of hippocampal place cells

Abstract

Place cell activity in the hippocampus depends in a complex way on the information from two major sensory sources: External (e.g., visual) cues and internal cues (self-motion, vestibular cues). Dissociation of the two inputs in the presence of the animal modifies the place fields in ways that depend on the magnitude of the difference: If the mismatch is small, place fields typically follow the external cues, but if the mismatch is large, their activity is determined mainly by the internal cues. The dynamics underlying the interaction between the external and internal cues in the hippocampus is not completely known, but is an important issue in understanding the hippocampus’ role in spatial learning and navigation. In this paper, we propose an attractor model of the hippocampus which captures the interaction between external and internal sensory inputs to the hippocampus. The proposed mechanism accounts for the difference seen in the experimental results in the case of a small versus a large discrepancy between the visual and idiothetic information.