Visual objects refine head direction coding

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Siegenthaler, Dominique; Denny, Henry; Carrasco, Sofia Skromne; Mayer, Johanna Luise; Levenstein, Daniel; Peyrache, Adrien; Trenholm, Stuart; Mace, Emilie
• 署名单位: University of Gottingen; UNIVERSITY GOTTINGEN HOSPITAL; University of Gottingen; McGill University; Mila Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute; Yale University
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8464
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adu9828
• 发表日期: 2025-09-11
• 关键词: freely moving rats; anterior thalamus; spatial map; cortex; AREA; postsubiculum; cells; network; origins; MODULES

摘要

Animals use visual objects to guide navigation-related behaviors. However, visual object-preferring areas have yet to be described in the mouse brain, limiting our understanding of how visual objects affect spatial navigation system processing. Using functional ultrasound imaging, we identified brain areas that were preferentially activated by images of objects compared with their scrambled versions. Whereas visual cortex did not show a preference, areas associated with spatial navigation were preferentially activated by visual objects. Electrophysiological recordings in postsubiculum, the cortical head direction (HD) system hub, confirmed a preference for visual objects in both HD cells and fast-spiking interneurons. In freely moving animals, visual objects increased firing rates of HD cells aligned with a visual object but decreased activity in HD cells coding for other directions.