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Turning heads to remember places

Nature Neuroscience volume 17, pages 643–644 (2014)Cite this article

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By eliciting a natural exploratory behavior in rats, head scanning, a study reveals that hippocampal place cells form new, stable firing fields in those locations where the behavior has just occurred.

It has long been understood that the stereotypical rodent behaviors influence oscillatory patterns and the overall state of the hippocampus network2. Highly rhythmic theta-band oscillations (5–12 Hz) are present when animals actively engage in exploratory activity and locomotion. In contrast, theta oscillations disappear during waking behavioral inactivity, and intermittent 200-Hz oscillatory patterns called sharp waves/ripples (SWRs) emerge during this state3. SWRs are also present in certain conditions when animals are active; for example, they can be seen at goal locations and during grooming or eating.

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Figure 1: The firing of a place cell that develops a new place field at the location of a head scan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, David Dupret is at the Medical Research Council Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK,

    David Dupret

  2. Jozsef Csicsvari is at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria.,

    Jozsef Csicsvari

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  1. David Dupret
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  2. Jozsef Csicsvari
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Correspondence to David Dupret or Jozsef Csicsvari.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Dupret, D., Csicsvari, J. Turning heads to remember places. Nat Neurosci 17, 643–644 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3700

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