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Social place-cells in the bat hippocampus
David B Omer, Shir R Maimon, Liora Las
1Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. nachum.ulanovsky@weizmann.ac.il liora.las@weizmann.ac.il.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|January 13, 2018
Summary
Scientists discovered how the brain tracks other animals in space. Hippocampal neurons in observer bats represented demonstrator bats' positions, aiding social spatial cognition.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Animal Behavior
Background:
- Social animals require knowledge of conspecific spatial positions for survival and interaction.
- The neural mechanisms underlying the representation of others' locations in the brain remain largely unelucidated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how the brain represents the spatial positions of other individuals.
- To identify specific neuronal populations involved in social-spatial cognition.
Main Methods:
- A spatial observational-learning task was designed using bats.
- Hippocampal dorsal CA1 (Dorsal CA1) neuronal activity was recorded in observer bats mimicking demonstrator bats.
Main Results:
- A subpopulation of hippocampal neurons represented the demonstrator bat's position in allocentric coordinates.
- Approximately half of these 'social place-cells' also encoded the observer bat's own position.
- The representation of the demonstrator bat was distinct from self-movement or trajectory planning.
- Neurons representing inanimate objects showed different representational properties compared to those encoding the demonstrator bat.
Conclusions:
- Hippocampal CA1 neurons play a crucial role in social-spatial cognition.
- The brain utilizes specific neuronal ensembles to track the locations of conspecifics.
- This research provides insights into the neural basis of understanding others' spatial presence.
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