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Spaces within spaces: rat parietal cortex neurons register position across three reference frames

Nature Neuroscience volume 15, pages 1365–1367 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

We recorded parietal cortex neurons as rats traversed squared spiral tracks. Spatial firing patterns distinguished the behaviorally identical track segments composing loops, yet recurred with increasing or decreasing amplitude across the five loops composing the full track. These results indicate that parietal cortex neurons simultaneously respond to spatial relationships in multiple external reference frames, a phenomenon that may reflect a neural mechanism for relating parts to a whole.

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Figure 1: Parietal neuron firing along spiral tracks.
Figure 2: PPC neuron firing patterns discriminate segments, but recur across loops.
Figure 3: GLM analysis of spatial firing.

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Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank K. Papaefthimiou, L. Quinn, S. Cowen, D. Tingley, A. Chiba, S. Kolbu, A. Alexander and J. Wiles for discussion of the data and assistance in constructing analyses. This work was supported by the Neurosciences Research Foundation.

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  1. Department of Cognitive Science, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, California, USA

    Douglas A Nitz

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  1. Douglas A Nitz
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Correspondence to Douglas A Nitz.

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Nitz, D. Spaces within spaces: rat parietal cortex neurons register position across three reference frames. Nat Neurosci 15, 1365–1367 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3213

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