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SPATIAL COGNITION

Task engagement turns on spatial maps

Nature Neuroscience volume 25, pages 534–535 (2022)Cite this article

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Pettit, Yuan and Harvey find that hippocampal spatial maps degrade when mice voluntarily disengage from a navigation task, even without changes in sensory or self-motion cues. This finding suggests that internal state could have an active role in supporting navigational coding and, perhaps, spatial memory.

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Fig. 1: Place cell activity during task engagement and disengagement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Isabel I. C. Low & Lisa M. Giocomo

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  1. Isabel I. C. Low
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  2. Lisa M. Giocomo
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Correspondence to Lisa M. Giocomo.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Low, I.I.C., Giocomo, L.M. Task engagement turns on spatial maps. Nat Neurosci 25, 534–535 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01051-3

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