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Recording Spatially Restricted Oscillations in the Hippocampus of Behaving Mice
Published on: July 1, 2018
Hippocampal cellular and network activity in freely moving echolocating bats
Nachum Ulanovsky1, Cynthia F Moss
1Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. nulanovsky@psyc.umd.edu
Nature Neuroscience
|January 16, 2007
Summary
Hippocampal recordings in bats reveal place cells similar to rodents. However, theta oscillations differ, occurring during non-locomotive exploration and in intermittent bouts, suggesting new models for hippocampal function.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Comparative Cognition
- Memory Research
Background:
- The hippocampus is vital for memory, with spatially selective 'place cells' and theta oscillations identified in rodents during locomotion.
- Rodent hippocampal models are foundational, but their applicability to phylogenetically distant mammals like bats remains largely unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate hippocampal function in echolocating bats, comparing their neural activity to established rodent models.
- To characterize the presence and properties of place cells and theta oscillations in bats during naturalistic exploration.
Main Methods:
- Electrophysiological recordings from the hippocampus of freely moving, echolocating bats.
- Analysis of neuronal firing patterns in relation to spatial location and sensory input (echolocation calls).
- Comparison of bat hippocampal activity (place cells, theta oscillations) with existing rodent data.
Main Results:
- Bats exhibit place cells with spatial selectivity comparable to rodents.
- Hippocampal ripple oscillations in bats resemble those observed in rodents.
- Theta oscillations in bats occur during non-locomotive, echolocation-driven exploration and are intermittent, unlike the continuous theta in rodents.
Conclusions:
- The presence of similar place cells supports conserved spatial memory mechanisms across mammals.
- The distinct pattern of theta oscillations in bats suggests that continuous theta is not universally required for hippocampal function.
- The findings support a role for theta oscillations in sequence learning, correlating with sensory input rates (running speed in rodents, echolocation rate in bats).
