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      Grid coding, spatial representation, and navigation: Should we assume an isomorphism?

      1 , 1 , 2
      Hippocampus
      Wiley

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          Abstract

          Grid cells provide a compelling example of a link between cellular activity and an abstract and difficult to define concept like space. Accordingly, a representational perspective on grid coding argues that neural grid coding underlies a fundamentally spatial metric. Recently, some theoretical proposals have suggested extending such a framework to non-spatial cognition as well, such as category learning. Here, we provide a critique of the frequently employed assumption of an isomorphism between patterns of neural activity (e.g., grid cells), mental representation, and behavior (e.g., navigation). Specifically, we question the strict isomorphism between these three levels and suggest that human spatial navigation is perhaps best characterized by a wide variety of both metric and non-metric strategies. We offer an alternative perspective on how grid coding might relate to human spatial navigation, arguing that grid coding is part of a much larger conglomeration of neural activity patterns that dynamically tune to accomplish specific behavioral outputs.

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          Most cited references83

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          Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex.

          The ability to find one's way depends on neural algorithms that integrate information about place, distance and direction, but the implementation of these operations in cortical microcircuits is poorly understood. Here we show that the dorsocaudal medial entorhinal cortex (dMEC) contains a directionally oriented, topographically organized neural map of the spatial environment. Its key unit is the 'grid cell', which is activated whenever the animal's position coincides with any vertex of a regular grid of equilateral triangles spanning the surface of the environment. Grids of neighbouring cells share a common orientation and spacing, but their vertex locations (their phases) differ. The spacing and size of individual fields increase from dorsal to ventral dMEC. The map is anchored to external landmarks, but persists in their absence, suggesting that grid cells may be part of a generalized, path-integration-based map of the spatial environment.
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            Conjunctive representation of position, direction, and velocity in entorhinal cortex.

            Grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) are part of an environment-independent spatial coordinate system. To determine how information about location, direction, and distance is integrated in the grid-cell network, we recorded from each principal cell layer of MEC in rats that explored two-dimensional environments. Whereas layer II was predominated by grid cells, grid cells colocalized with head-direction cells and conjunctive grid x head-direction cells in the deeper layers. All cell types were modulated by running speed. The conjunction of positional, directional, and translational information in a single MEC cell type may enable grid coordinates to be updated during self-motion-based navigation.
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              Cortical control of arm movements: a dynamical systems perspective.

              Our ability to move is central to everyday life. Investigating the neural control of movement in general, and the cortical control of volitional arm movements in particular, has been a major research focus in recent decades. Studies have involved primarily either attempts to account for single-neuron responses in terms of tuning for movement parameters or attempts to decode movement parameters from populations of tuned neurons. Even though this focus on encoding and decoding has led to many seminal advances, it has not produced an agreed-upon conceptual framework. Interest in understanding the underlying neural dynamics has recently increased, leading to questions such as how does the current population response determine the future population response, and to what purpose? We review how a dynamical systems perspective may help us understand why neural activity evolves the way it does, how neural activity relates to movement parameters, and how a unified conceptual framework may result.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (View ORCID Profile)
                Journal
                Hippocampus
                Hippocampus
                Wiley
                1050-9631
                1098-1063
                April 2020
                April 2020
                : 30
                : 4
                : 422-432
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of PsychologyUniversity of Arizona Tucson Arizona
                [2 ]Center for NeuroscienceUniversity of California Davis California
                Article
                10.1002/hipo.23175
                7409510
                31742364
                b7000d63-48c8-4f5c-bb0e-f3e34c885d95
                © 2020

                http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#am

                http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor

                http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/tdm_license_1.1

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