Information flow between hippocampus and related structures during various types of rat's behavior

The relationships among the CA1 field of hippocampus, the entorhinal-piriform area, the subiculum and the lateral septum were studied in various behavioral states in the rat. The EEG signals recorded simultaneously from chronically implanted electrodes were analyzed by means of a multichannel autoregressive (AR) model. Power spectra, ordinary, multiple and partial coherences, and directed transfer functions were calculated. The method of analysis which took into account all signals simultaneously, not pair-wise, made it possible to estimate the spectral characteristics and the directions of the EEG flow between structures. The pattern of the EEG activity propagation depended on the type of behavior, difficulty of the task performed by the animal, and the phase of the trial. Our results not only confirmed the existence of connections between analyzed structures, but also showed that these connections may have different strengths during various types of behavior.