Persistent Neural Activity in Head Direction Cells

Many neurons throughout the rat limbic system discharge in relation to the animal’s directional heading with respect to its environment. These so-called head direction (HD) cells exhibit characteristics of persistent neural activity. This article summarizes where HD cells are found, their major prop...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) N.Y. 1991), 2003-11, Vol.13 (11), p.1162-1172
Main Authors: Taube, Jeffrey S., Bassett, Joshua P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Head Movements - physiology
Humans
Life Sciences (General)
Nerve Net - cytology
Nerve Net - physiology
Neurons - cytology
Neurons - physiology
Space life sciences
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Summary:Many neurons throughout the rat limbic system discharge in relation to the animal’s directional heading with respect to its environment. These so-called head direction (HD) cells exhibit characteristics of persistent neural activity. This article summarizes where HD cells are found, their major properties, and some of the important experiments that have been conducted to elucidate how this signal is generated. The number of HD and angular head velocity cells was estimated for several brain areas involved in the generation of the HD signal, including the postsubiculum, anterior dorsal thalamus, lateral mammillary nuclei and dorsal tegmental nucleus. The HD cell signal has many features in common with what is known about how neural integration is accomplished in the oculomotor system. The nature of the HD cell signal makes it an attractive candidate for using neural network models to elucidate the signal’s underlying mechanisms. The conditions that any network model must satisfy in order to accurately represent how the nervous system generates this signal are highlighted and areas where key information is missing are discussed.
ISSN:1047-3211
1460-2199
1460-2199
DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhg102