Anticipatory Neural Activity Improves the Decoding Accuracy for Dynamic Head-Direction Signals
Johannes Zirkelbach1, Martin Stemmler1, Andreas V M Herz2
1Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich and Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.
Summary
Neurons in the brain that track head direction (HD) show anticipatory firing. This anticipation improves the accuracy of the internal compass by reducing temporal bias in decoding movement.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Computational Neuroscience
- Animal Behavior
Background:
- Head direction (HD) cells in animals provide an internal compass for spatial navigation.
- HD cells in rat anterodorsal thalamic nucleus (ADN) exhibit anticipatory firing, firing before the preferred direction is reached.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide a functional interpretation for the anticipatory firing of HD cells.
- To investigate how anticipatory firing impacts the accuracy of head direction decoding.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a computational approach modeling rat movement statistics and neural responses in the ADN HD network.
- Employed population vector decoding, considering only past neural spikes for biologically plausible readout.
Main Results:
- Anticipatory firing reduces motion-induced temporal bias in causal decoding of head direction.
- The observed level of anticipation in ADN enhances HD compass readout precision by up to 40%.
Conclusions:
- Neural integration times are influenced by biophysical constraints and stimulus statistics.
- Anticipatory tuning is predicted in neurons encoding gradually changing sensory signals, like head direction.
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