Retrosplenial cortex encodes both local and global space in connected environments

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Laurent, Celia | Smith, David | Sargolini, Francesca | Jacob, Pierre-Yves

Edité par CCSD -

International audience. In everyday life, mammals have to find their way between interconnected spaces. How the brain processes spatial information in these complex environments is a crucial question for understanding how we navigate. Theoretical frameworks have proposed that the brain presents simultaneous activities that are either maintained in connected spaces (global reference frame) or distinguished in each space (local reference frames). The different head direction signals discovered in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) suggest that this brain area supports both local and global spatial activity. We tested this hypothesis by recording RSC neurons in environments consisting of 2 or 4 connected rooms that are either identical or different. We observed two types of head direction activity simultaneously: one showing opposite or orthogonal directional activity in the 2 and 4 connected spaces and thus anchored to local reference frames, and one maintaining a stable head direction activity across connected spaces and thus anchored to the global reference frame. We also found that other RSC neurons show a spatial pattern that repeats oppositely or orthogonally in the 2 and 4 connected spaces respectively. In contrast, hippocampal place cells activity never shows opposite or orthogonal patterns, but rather a spatial remapping or a translational repeated activity. Overall, the results show that only the RSC has the simultaneous neuronal activity necessary to form a spatial representation in connected environments.

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