Axis Of Medial Entorhinal Cortex Research Articles

Saccade Velocity Driven Oscillatory Network Model of Grid Cells.

Grid cells and place cells are believed to be cellular substrates for the spatial navigation functions of hippocampus as experimental animals physically navigated in 2D and 3D spaces. However, a recent saccade study on head fixated monkey has also reported grid-like representations on saccadic trajectory while the animal scanned the images on a computer screen. We present two computational models that explain the formation of grid patterns on saccadic trajectory formed on the novel Images. The first model named Saccade Velocity Driven Oscillatory Network -Direct PCA (SVDON—DPCA) explains how grid patterns can be generated on saccadic space using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) like learning rule. The model adopts a hierarchical architecture. We extend this to a network model viz. Saccade Velocity Driven Oscillatory Network—Network PCA (SVDON-NPCA) where the direct PCA stage is replaced by a neural network that can implement PCA using a neurally plausible algorithm. This gives the leverage to study the formation of grid cells at a network level. Saccade trajectory for both models is generated based on an attention model which attends to the salient location by computing the saliency maps of the images. Both models capture the spatial characteristics of grid cells such as grid scale variation on the dorso-ventral axis of Medial Entorhinal cortex. Adding one more layer of LAHN over the SVDON-NPCA model predicts the Place cells in saccadic space, which are yet to be discovered experimentally. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to model grid cells and place cells from saccade trajectory.

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Layer II stellate cells at different locations along the dorsal to ventral axis of medial entorhinal cortex show differences in the frequency of intrinsic membrane potential oscillations and resonance (Giocomo et al., 2007). The frequency differences scale with differences in the size and spacing of grid-cell firing fields recorded in layer II of the medial entorhinal cortex in behaving animals. To determine the mechanism for this difference in intrinsic frequency, we analyzed oscillatory properties in adult control mice and adult mice with a global deletion of the HCN1 channel. Data from whole-cell patch recordings show that the oscillation frequency gradient along the dorsal–ventral axis previously shown in juvenile rats also appears in control adult mice, indicating that the dorsal–ventral gradient generalizes across age and species. Knock-out of the HCN1 channel flattens the dorsal–ventral gradient of the membrane potential oscillation frequency, the resonant frequency, the time constant of the “sag” potential and the amplitude of the sag potential. This supports a role of the HCN1 subunit in the mechanism of the frequency gradient in these neurons. These findings have important implications for models of grid cells and generate predictions for future in vivo work on entorhinal grid cells.

Grid Cells Use HCN1 Channels for Spatial Scaling

Entorhinal grid cells have periodic, hexagonally patterned firing locations that scale up progressively along the dorsal-ventral axis of medial entorhinal cortex. This topographic expansion corresponds with parallel changes in cellular properties dependent on the hyperpolarization-activated cation current (Ih), which is conducted by hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels. To test the hypothesis that grid scale is determined by Ih, we recorded grid cells in mice with forebrain-specific knockout of HCN1. We find that, although the dorsal-ventral gradient of the grid pattern was preserved in HCN1 knockout mice, the size and spacing of the grid fields, as well as the period of the accompanying theta modulation, was expanded at all dorsal-ventral levels. There was no change in theta modulation of simultaneously recorded entorhinal interneurons. These observations raise the possibility that, during self-motion-based navigation, Ih contributes to the gain of the transformation from movement signals to spatial firing fields.

Frequency of Subthreshold Oscillations at Different Membrane Potential Voltages in Neurons at Different Anatomical Positions on the Dorsoventral Axis in the Rat Medial Entorhinal Cortex

Neurons from layer II of the medial entorhinal cortex show subthreshold membrane potential oscillations (SMPOs) which could contribute to theta-rhythm generation in the entorhinal cortex and to generation of grid cell firing patterns. However, it is unclear whether single neurons have a fixed unique oscillation frequency or whether their frequency varies depending on the mean membrane potential in a cell. We therefore examined the frequency of SMPOs at different membrane potentials in layer II stellate-like cells of the rat medial entorhinal cortex in vitro. Using whole-cell patch recordings, we found that the fluctuations in membrane potential show a broad band of low power frequencies near resting potential that transition to more narrowband oscillation frequencies with depolarization. The transition from broadband to narrowband frequencies depends on the location of the neuron along the dorsoventral axis in the entorhinal cortex, with dorsal neurons transitioning to higher-frequency oscillations relative to ventral neurons transitioning to lower-frequency oscillations. Once SMPOs showed a narrowband frequency, systematic frequency changes were not observed with further depolarization. Using a Hodgkin-Huxley-style model of membrane currents, we show that differences in the influence of depolarization on the frequency of SMPOs at different dorsal to ventral positions could arise from differences in the properties of the h current. The properties of frequency changes in this data are important for evaluating models of the generation of grid cell firing fields with different spacings along the dorsal-to-ventral axis of medial entorhinal cortex.

Cholinergic modulation of the resonance properties of stellate cells in layer II of medial entorhinal cortex.

In vitro whole cell patch-clamp recordings of stellate cells in layer II of medial entorhinal cortex show a subthreshold membrane potential resonance in response to a sinusoidal current injection of varying frequency. Physiological recordings from awake behaving animals show that neurons in layer II medial entorhinal cortex, termed "grid cells," fire in a spatially selective manner such that each cell's multiple firing fields form a hexagonal grid. Both the spatial periodicity of the grid fields and the resonance frequency change systematically in neurons along the dorsal to ventral axis of medial entorhinal cortex. Previous work has also shown that grid field spacing and acetylcholine levels change as a function of the novelty to a particular environment. Using in vitro whole cell patch-clamp recordings, our study shows that both resonance frequency and resonance strength vary as a function of cholinergic modulation. Furthermore, our data suggest that these changes in resonance properties are mediated through modulation of h-current and m-current.

Knock-Out of HCN1 Subunit Flattens Dorsal-Ventral Frequency Gradient of Medial Entorhinal Neurons in Adult Mice

Layer II stellate cells at different locations along the dorsal to ventral axis of medial entorhinal cortex show differences in the frequency of intrinsic membrane potential oscillations and resonance (Giocomo et al., 2007). The frequency differences scale with differences in the size and spacing of grid-cell firing fields recorded in layer II of the medial entorhinal cortex in behaving animals. To determine the mechanism for this difference in intrinsic frequency, we analyzed oscillatory properties in adult control mice and adult mice with a global deletion of the HCN1 channel. Data from whole-cell patch recordings show that the oscillation frequency gradient along the dorsal-ventral axis previously shown in juvenile rats also appears in control adult mice, indicating that the dorsal-ventral gradient generalizes across age and species. Knock-out of the HCN1 channel flattens the dorsal-ventral gradient of the membrane potential oscillation frequency, the resonant frequency, the time constant of the "sag" potential and the amplitude of the sag potential. This supports a role of the HCN1 subunit in the mechanism of the frequency gradient in these neurons. These findings have important implications for models of grid cells and generate predictions for future in vivo work on entorhinal grid cells.

Time constants of h current in layer ii stellate cells differ along the dorsal to ventral axis of medial entorhinal cortex.

Chronic recordings in the medial entorhinal cortex of behaving rats have found grid cells, neurons that fire when the rat is in a hexagonal array of locations. Grid cells recorded at different dorsal-ventral anatomical positions show systematic changes in size and spacing of firing fields. To test possible mechanisms underlying these differences, we analyzed properties of the hyperpolarization-activated cation current I(h) in voltage-clamp recordings from stellate cells in entorhinal slices from different dorsal-ventral locations. The time constant of h current was significantly different between dorsal and ventral neurons. The time constant of h current correlated with membrane potential oscillation frequency and the time constant of the sag potential in the same neurons. Differences in h current could underlie differences in membrane potential oscillation properties and contribute to grid cell periodicity along the dorsal-ventral axis of medial entorhinal cortex.