The Head Direction Signal: Origins and Sensory-Motor Integration

Taube, Jeffrey S.

doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.29.051605.112854

Cited by 769 publications

(991 citation statements)

References 126 publications

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“…These neurons fire maximally at a particular head orientation relative to gravity, in a way analogous to rodent azimuth-tuned HD cells, whose preferred direction is anchored to visual landmarks 8,9 . The gravity-tuned cells didn’t appear to be tuned to head azimuth; however the tuning of HD cells is frequently suppressed during head-fixed rotation in rodents 10 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…We 7 have hypothesized that gravity provides a global allocentric reference for spatial orientation. Head direction (HD) cells form a “neuronal compass”, encoding head orientation in the horizontal plane 8 as well as head orientation relative to vertical, as shown recently in the dorsal presubiculum of bats 9 . Here we searched for gravity-tuned cells in the macaque anterior thalamus, where HD cells are found in rodents 8 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Gravity orientation tuning in macaque anterior thalamus

et al. 2016

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Gravity may provide a ubiquitous allocentric reference to the brain’s spatial orientation circuits. Here we describe neurons in the macaque anterior thalamus tuned to pitch and roll orientation relative to gravity, independent of visual landmarks. We show that individual cells exhibit two-dimensional tuning curves, with peak firing rates at a preferred vertical orientation. These results identify a thalamic pathway for gravity cues to influence perception, action and spatial cognition.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Gravity orientation tuning in macaque anterior thalamus

et al. 2016

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“…they may set the translational phase of the grid) [33,34,72]. Head direction cells are thought to set the orientation of the grid; these cells themselves are known to be reset by prominent visual landmarks when they become misaligned with the allocentric reference frame defined by external landmarks [73]. Furthermore, information about visual scenes that enter the MEC from the parahippocampal/postrhinal cortex [74,75] may play a similar role in keeping the grid bound to the external world, perhaps directly or indirectly through an influence of the boundary cells and head direction cells.…”

Section: (A) Medial Entorhinal Cortexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional correlates of the lateral and medial entorhinal cortex: objects, path integration and local–global reference frames

Knierim

Neunuebel

Deshmukh

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

357

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The hippocampus receives its major cortical input from the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC). It is commonly believed that the MEC provides spatial input to the hippocampus, whereas the LEC provides non-spatial input. We review new data which suggest that this simple dichotomy between ‘where’ versus ‘what’ needs revision. We propose a refinement of this model, which is more complex than the simple spatial–non-spatial dichotomy. MEC is proposed to be involved in path integration computations based on a global frame of reference, primarily using internally generated, self-motion cues and external input about environmental boundaries and scenes; it provides the hippocampus with a coordinate system that underlies the spatial context of an experience. LEC is proposed to process information about individual items and locations based on a local frame of reference, primarily using external sensory input; it provides the hippocampus with information about the content of an experience.

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“…1). A fourth thalamic nucleus, lateral dorsal, can be included in this anterior group, as it shares many of these same limbic connections (Bentivoglio et al 1993) and has similar electrophysiological properties to the anterior dorsal thalamic nucleus (Taube 2007). A major difference is that the lateral dorsal nucleus lacks dense inputs from the mammillary bodies (Vann et al 2007).…”

Section: The Anterior Thalamic Nucleimentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the contributions of the diencephalon to recognition memory: A review

Aggleton¹,

Dumont²,

Warburton³

2011

Learn. Mem.

137

111

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Both clinical investigations and studies with animals reveal nuclei within the diencephalon that are vital for recognition memory (the judgment of prior occurrence). This review seeks to identify these nuclei and to consider why they might be important for recognition memory. Despite the lack of clinical cases with circumscribed pathology within the diencephalon and apparent species differences, convergent evidence from a variety of sources implicates a subgroup of medial diencephalic nuclei. It is supposed that the key functional interactions of this subgroup of diencephalic nuclei are with the medial temporal lobe, the prefrontal cortex, and with cingulate regions. In addition, some of the clinical evidence most readily supports dual-process models of recognition, which assume two independent cognitive processes (recollective-based and familiarity-based) that combine to direct recognition judgments. From this array of information a "multi-effect multinuclei" model is proposed, in which the mammillary bodies and the anterior thalamic nuclei are of preeminent importance for recollective-based recognition. The medial dorsal thalamic nucleus is thought to contribute to familiarity-based recognition, but this nucleus, along with various midline and intralaminar thalamic nuclei, is also assumed to have broader, indirect effects upon both recollective-based and familiarity-based recognition.Clinical studies repeatedly show that diencephalic pathology can impair recognition memory. Even so, there is no agreed locus within the diencephalon responsible for this memory loss and, hence, no agreed mechanism to explain the impairment. The present review examines both clinical and animal findings, and from this information a multi-effect multi-nuclei (MEMN) model emerges to explain the contributions of the diencephalon to recognition memory.At the outset, it is necessary to refine the focus of this review and to define some of its principal terms. The diencephalon comprises the thalamus and hypothalamus but, as will be explained, only the more medial parts of the diencephalon will be considered in detail. Recognition memory refers to the ability to detect whether a stimulus (e.g., a word, face, picture, object, or sound) has previously been encountered. As a consequence, this review is not about item identification (sometimes also confusingly referred to as recognition). Likewise, conditions that have broad disruptive effects on cognition, e.g., dementia, will not be considered even though recognition is typically impaired. Distinctions will be made between "item recognition," where the task is to determine if an individual item is novel or familiar, and "associative recognition," where all the individual items being experienced are familiar, but their particular combination is novel. A further, distinct ability is "recency" discrimination-the ability to determine which of two familiar stimuli has been experienced more recently. Both studies of amnesia and electrophysiological recordings show how recency memory and recogniti...

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The Head Direction Signal: Origins and Sensory-Motor Integration

Cited by 769 publications

References 126 publications

Gravity orientation tuning in macaque anterior thalamus

Gravity orientation tuning in macaque anterior thalamus

Functional correlates of the lateral and medial entorhinal cortex: objects, path integration and local–global reference frames

Unraveling the contributions of the diencephalon to recognition memory: A review

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