Goodridge J P, Taube J S
Department of Psychology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.
Behav Neurosci. 1995 Feb;109(1):49-61. doi: 10.1037//0735-7044.109.1.49.
Previous studies have identified a population of cells recorded in the postsubiculum and the anterior thalamic nucleus (ATN) that discharge as a function of an animal's head direction (HD) in the horizontal plane. The present experiments monitored HD cell activity when rats were confronted with a situation in which directional information from internal sensory sources (e.g., proprioceptive, vestibular, or motor efference copy) conflicted with directional information derived from familiar, external landmarks. Results showed that when a salient, familiar cue was reintroduced to rat's environment into a position that conflicted with the cell's current firing direction, HD cells in both the ATN and the postsubiculum shifted their preferred direction to reflect their originally established orientation with this cue. This finding suggests that sensory inputs onto HD cells from external landmark cues are capable of overriding spatial information developed through internal sensory cues.
先前的研究已经确定，在海马后下托和丘脑前核（ATN）中记录到的一群细胞，其放电活动是动物在水平面内头部方向（HD）的函数。本实验监测了大鼠面对一种情况时HD细胞的活动，即来自内部感觉源（如本体感觉、前庭或运动传出副本）的方向信息与来自熟悉的外部地标所获得的方向信息相冲突。结果表明，当一个显著的、熟悉的线索被重新引入大鼠的环境中，并处于与细胞当前放电方向相冲突的位置时，ATN和后下托中的HD细胞都会改变其偏好方向，以反映它们最初与该线索建立的方向。这一发现表明，来自外部地标线索的感觉输入能够覆盖通过内部感觉线索形成的空间信息。
