Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Science. 2010 Jun 18;328(5985):1573-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1188224.
Orienting in large-scale space depends on the interaction of environmental experience and preconfigured, possibly innate, constructs. Place, head-direction, and grid cells in the hippocampal formation provide allocentric representations of space. Here we show how these cognitive representations emerge and develop as rat pups first begin to explore their environment. Directional, locational, and rhythmic organization of firing are present during initial exploration, including adultlike directional firing. The stability and precision of place cell firing continue to develop throughout juvenility. Stable grid cell firing appears later but matures rapidly to adult levels. Our results demonstrate the presence of three neuronal representations of space before extensive experience and show how they develop with age.
在大型空间中的定位取决于环境经验和预先配置的、可能是先天的结构的相互作用。海马结构中的位置、头部方向和网格细胞提供了空间的非自我中心表示。在这里,我们展示了当幼鼠开始探索环境时,这些认知表示是如何出现和发展的。在最初的探索过程中,存在着定向、定位和节律性的发射组织,包括类似成人的定向发射。位置细胞发射的稳定性和精确性在整个青少年期继续发展。稳定的网格细胞发射出现得较晚,但迅速成熟到成人水平。我们的结果表明,在广泛的经验之前存在三种空间神经元表示,并展示了它们如何随年龄发展。