bioRxiv · 10.1101/744714
Reorganization and reactivation of a preexisting taste-responsive hippocampal network
Abstract
Animals need to remember the locations of nourishing and toxic food sources for survival, a fact that necessitates a mechanism for associating taste experiences with particular places. We have previously identified such responses within hippocampal place cells [1], the activity of which is thought to aid memory-guided behavior by forming a mental map of an animals environment that can be reshaped through experience [2-7]. It remains unknown, however, whether taste-responsiveness is intrinsic to a subset of place cells, or emerges as a result of experience that reorganizes spatial maps. Here, we recorded from neurons in the dorsal CA1 region of rats running for palatable tastes delivered via intra-oral cannulae at specific locations on a linear track. We identified a subset of taste-responsive cells that, even prior to taste exposure, had larger place fields than non-taste-responsive cells overlapping with stimulus delivery zones. Taste-responsive cells place fields then contracted, as a result of taste experience, leading to a stronger representation of stimulus delivery zones on the track. Taste-responsive units exhibited increased sharp-wave ripple co-activation during the taste delivery session and subsequent rest periods, which correlated with the degree of place field contraction. Our results reveal that novel taste experience evokes responses within a preconfigured network of taste-responsive hippocampal place cells with large fields, whose spatial representations are refined by sensory experience to signal areas of behavioral salience. This represents a possible mechanism by which animals identify and remember locations where ecologically relevant stimuli are found within their environment.
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Herzog, L. E., Katz, D. B., Jadhav, S. P.. 2019-08-22. Reorganization and reactivation of a preexisting taste-responsive hippocampal network. https://doi.org/10.1101/744714
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