Cell type, sub-region, and layer-specific speed representation in the hippocampal-entorhinal circuit

It has been hypothesised that speed information, encoded by 'speed cells', is important for updating spatial representation in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex to reflect ongoing self-movement during locomotion. However, systematic characterisation of speed representation is still lacking. In this study, we compared the speed representation of distinct cell types across sub-regions/layers in the dorsal hippocampus and medial entorhinal cortex of rats during exploration. Our results indicate that the preferred theta phases of individual neurons are correlated with positive/negative speed modulation and a temporal shift of speed representation in a sub-region/layer and cell type-dependent manner. Most speed cells located in entorhinal cortex layer 2 represented speed prospectively, whereas those in the CA1 and entorhinal cortex layers 3 and 5 represented speed retrospectively. In entorhinal cortex layer 2, putative CA1-projecting pyramidal cells, but not putative dentate gyrus/CA3-projecting stellate cells, represented speed prospectively. Among the hippocampal interneurons, approximately one-third of putative dendrite-targeting (somatostatin-expressing) interneurons, but only a negligible fraction of putative soma-targeting (parvalbumin-expressing) interneurons, showed negative speed modulation. Putative parvalbumin-expressing CA1 interneurons and somatostatin-expressing CA3 interneurons represented speed more retrospectively than parvalbumin-expressing CA3 interneurons. These findings indicate that speed representation in the hippocampal-entorhinal circuit is cell-type, pathway, and theta-phase dependent.