Hippocampal contribution to vector model hypothesis during cue-dependent navigation

Diviney, Mairéad; Fey, Dirk; Commins, Seán

doi:10.1101/lm.029272.112

Cited by 9 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…One important difference, however, is that local visual cues presented at the goal play a dominant role in our task in head-fixed VR. As such cued tasks are generally considered hippocampus-independent in real-world situations (Morris et al, 1982; Hollup et al, 2001a; see also Diviney et al, 2013), this paradoxical finding could be because the relative influence and hippocampal dependence of global and local cues may differ when they are presented on a two-dimensional computer screen in head-fixed VR. The global cues presented in our unidirectional task may be too stationary to provide useful directional and distance information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hippocampus-Dependent Goal Localization by Head-Fixed Mice in Virtual Reality

Sato

Kawano

Mizuta

et al. 2017

eNeuro

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The demonstration of the ability of rodents to navigate in virtual reality (VR) has made it an important behavioral paradigm for studying spatially modulated neuronal activity in these animals. However, their behavior in such simulated environments remains poorly understood. Here, we show that encoding and retrieval of goal location memory in mice head-fixed in VR depends on the postsynaptic scaffolding protein Shank2 and the dorsal hippocampus. In our newly developed virtual cued goal location task, a head-fixed mouse moves from one end of a virtual linear track to seek rewards given at a target location along the track. The mouse needs to visually recognize the target location and stay there for a short period of time to receive the reward. Transient pharmacological blockade of fast glutamatergic synaptic transmission in the dorsal hippocampus dramatically and reversibly impaired performance of this task. Encoding and updating of virtual cued goal location memory was impaired in mice deficient in the postsynaptic scaffolding protein Shank2, a mouse model of autism that exhibits impaired spatial learning in a real environment. These results highlight the crucial roles of the dorsal hippocampus and postsynaptic protein complexes in spatial learning and navigation in VR.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hippocampus-Dependent Goal Localization by Head-Fixed Mice in Virtual Reality

Sato

Kawano

Mizuta

et al. 2017

eNeuro

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“…Therefore, we can reasonably assume that the far cue in the current study was a better indicator of directional (as opposed to distance) information. Previous work with rats in the water maze has also demonstrated that a loss of directional information affects performance more negatively than a comparable loss of distance information, suggesting that the former is weighted more heavily (Diviney et al, 2013;see Kamil and Jones, 2000 for a similar suggestion in birds).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Learning efficiency: The influence of cue salience during spatial navigation

Farina

Burke

Coyle

et al. 2015

Behavioural Processes

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In three experiments, male Wistar rats were trained to find a hidden platform in the Morris water maze using two cues for five or ten days. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated two factors of cue salience; proximity to the goal and brightness. Results from Experiment 1 showed that rats tested with a bright distal cue were significantly better at locating the platform than rats tested with the proximal cue after five- and ten-day training with both cues. In Experiment 2, the position of the cues was reversed. Rats tested with a brighter proximal cue outperformed those tested with a distal cue. Findings from Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that brightness acquired more control over rats' behaviour than proximity to the goal. Animals in Experiment 3 were trained with equally bright proximal and distal cues. Unexpectedly, probe tests revealed that rats tested with the farther cue were more accurate than those tested with the proximal cue, but only after extended training. Possible explanations for this result are discussed with reference to errors in directional information estimation and cue assignment, cue elevation and the use of the pool wall as a navigational aid. Taken together, findings point towards the use of an elemental learning strategy involving the more salient of the two cues which emerged earlier when the relative saliences of the cues differed considerably.

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“…They demonstrated a graded effect, whereby increasing the distance between the goal and the landmark led to a greater impairment in spatial performance. Similarly, Diviney et al (2013) found that animals were slower to find the hidden goal when cues were placed farther away from the target (opposite the hidden goal) than when cues were located in a nearer position. This effect has also been reported using virtual environments with human participants.…”

Section: Brief Introduction and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…The task also offers great flexibility; reference memory, spatial working memory, procedural memory, and cued learning can all be examined using this task by simply altering the protocol used. The water maze task relies on an intact hippocampus (Diviney, Fey, & Commins, 2013;Morris et al, 1982) and is therefore a good behavioral measure for pharmacological and genetic models of diseases that are known to impact on this structure (such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease; e.g., Baeta-Corral & Giménez-Llort, 2015). Furthermore, as the hippocampus is a key structure in learning and memory (Barry, Coogan, & Commins, 2016), synaptic plasticity (Bliss & Lomo, 1973;Craig & Commins, 2007), as well as, neurogenesis (Keith, Priester, Ferguson, Salling, & Hancock, 2008), changes in performance in the water maze task (or other hippocampal-dependent tasks) may reflect cellular changes that occur during normal learning processes.…”

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confidence: 99%

NavWell: A simplified virtual-reality platform for spatial navigation and memory experiments

et al. 2019

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Being able to navigate, recall important locations, and find the way home are critical skills, essential for survival for both humans and animals. These skills can be examined in the laboratory using the Morris water maze, often considered the gold standard test of animal navigation. In this task, animals are required to locate and recall the location of an escape platform hidden in a pool filled with water. Because animals can not see the platform directly, they must use various landmarks in the environment to escape. With recent advances in technology and virtual reality (VR), many tasks originally used in the animal literature can now be translated for human studies. The virtual water maze task is no exception. However, a number of issues are associated with these mazes, including cost, lack of flexibility, and lack of standardization in terms of experimental designs and procedures. Here we present a virtual water maze system (NavWell) that is readily downloadable and free to use. The system allows for the easy design of experiments and the testing of participants on a desktop computer or fully immersive VR environment. The data from four independent experiments are presented in order to validate the software. From these experiments, a set of procedures for use with a number of well-known memory tests is suggested. This potentially can help with the standardization of navigational research and with navigational testing in the clinic or in an educational environment. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the software and plans for its development and future use.

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Hippocampal contribution to vector model hypothesis during cue-dependent navigation

Cited by 9 publications

References 53 publications

Hippocampus-Dependent Goal Localization by Head-Fixed Mice in Virtual Reality

Hippocampus-Dependent Goal Localization by Head-Fixed Mice in Virtual Reality

Learning efficiency: The influence of cue salience during spatial navigation

NavWell: A simplified virtual-reality platform for spatial navigation and memory experiments

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