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Spatial reasoning via recurrent neural dynamics in mouse retrosplenial cortex.
Jakob Voigts1,2,3, Ingmar Kanitscheider4, Nicholas J Miller5,6
1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. voigtsj@janelia.hhmi.org.
Nature Neuroscience
|June 6, 2025
Summary
Mice use their retrosplenial cortex (RSC) to form and test hypotheses for spatial reasoning. This brain region resolves ambiguous landmark information by dynamically updating internal models, enabling complex navigation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Sensory stimuli derive meaning from prior experience.
- Recurrent neural dynamics interpret context-cued stimuli.
- The capacity for internal hypothesis generation in neural circuits remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if recurrent neural dynamics can compute and utilize internal hypotheses for resolving sensory ambiguity.
- To explore the role of the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) in spatial reasoning and hypothesis formation.
Main Methods:
- Mice navigated a task using ambiguous landmarks defined by spatial relationships.
- Recorded neural activity in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC).
- Analyzed neural data using low-dimensional dynamics and compared with artificial neural networks.
Main Results:
- Mouse retrosplenial cortex (RSC) demonstrated the ability to form multiple hypotheses over time.
- Neurons in RSC and artificial neural networks encoded a mixture of hypotheses, location, and sensory data.
- RSC activity exhibited divergent trajectories for identical sensory inputs, representing distinct hypotheses.
Conclusions:
- Recurrent dynamics in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) support spatial reasoning through sequential hypothesis refinement.
- Interactions between internal hypotheses and external sensory data in recurrent circuits underpin complex cognitive reasoning.
