Dynamics of place, boundary and object encoding in rat anterior claustrum.

Maciej M Jankowski,Shane M O’Mara

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00250

Abstract

Discrete populations of brain cells signal differing types of spatial information. These “spatial cells” are largely confined to a closely-connected network of sites. We describe here, for the first time, cells in the anterior claustrum of the freely-moving rat encoding place, boundary and object information. This novel claustral spatial signal potentially directly modulates a wide variety of anterior cortical regions. We hypothesize that one of the functions of the claustrum is to provide information about body position, boundaries and landmark information, enabling dynamic control of behavior.

Highlights

The claustrum of the mammalian brain is an anatomically-substantial but largely unexplored and uninvestigated structure (Edelstein and Denaro, 2004)
We have found in the anterior claustrum several populations of spatially-responsive cells
We have found in anterior claustrum a distinct group of cells responsive in the vicinity of discrete objects which we classified as ‘‘object cells’’

Summary

Introduction

The claustrum of the mammalian brain is an anatomically-substantial but largely unexplored and uninvestigated structure (Edelstein and Denaro, 2004). It is superior to the orbitofrontal cortex (rostrally) and approximately parallel to the insular cortex (laterally). It has a complex three-dimensional morphology across its longitudinal axis. The limbic areas with which the claustrum communicates include many thalamic nuclei, the medial septal nuclei, amygdala, cingulate gyrus, subiculum, retrosplenial cortex and medial and lateral entorhinal cortex (Wilhite et al, 1986; Zhang et al, 2001; Majak et al, 2002; Park et al, 2012; Zingg et al, 2014). There is the possibility of functional interactions between the entorhinal-hippocampal neuraxis and claustrum

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Conclusion