Spatial awareness: In space and time.

摘要

Place cells in the hippocampus and directional and grid cells in the entorhinal cortex contribute to the cognitive representation of space in adult rats. Two independent studies have now shown that the basic characteristics of these three cell types are present when rat pups first start to navigate outside their nests, and that each cell type has a different rate of maturation. Using head-mounted microdrives, the authors of both studies investigated cells in hippocampal area CA1 and in the entorhinal cortex in freely behaving young rats. Cells were categorized according to their specific spatial firing characteristics, allowing the authors to monitor the proportion of different cell types as well as their state of maturation.