How does our brain tell us where we are based on what we see and hear? – Neuronal basis of cross-modal sensory integration for navigation

Guifen Chen (primary)
Department of Psychology
Queen Mary, Univeristy of London
Neil Burgess (secondary)
Institute of cognitive neuroscience
University College London

Abstract

The ability to navigate is an essential skill required by both humans and animals. Neural activity in the hippocampus and an adjacent cortical area, the entorhinal cortex, has been shown to correlate with the physical location and orientation of an organism. However, it is not clear how an internal unified representation of space, which supports navigation, is generated by integrating sensory inputs across modalities. The overall aim of this project is to decipher the neural mechanisms of cross-modal navigation in the hippocampal-entorhinal network.


References

1. Rowland, D. C., Roudi, Y., Moser, M.-B. & Moser, E. I. Ten Years of Grid Cells. Annu Rev Neurosci 39, 1–22 (2015).
2. Chen, G., Lu, Y., King, J. A., Cacucci, F. & Burgess, N. Differential influences of environment and self-motion on place and grid cell firing. Nat Commun 10, 630 (2019).
3. Chen, G., King, J. A., Lu, Y., Cacucci, F. & Burgess, N. Spatial cell firing during virtual navigation of open arenas by head-restrained mice. Elife 7, e34789 (2018).
4. Aronov, D., Nevers, R. & Tank, D. W. Mapping of a non-spatial dimension by the hippocampal–entorhinal circuit. Nature 543, 719–722 (2017).
5. Doeller, C. F., Barry, C. & Burgess, N. Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network. Nature 463, 657–661 (2010).


BBSRC Area
Animal disease, health and welfareGenes, development and STEM* approaches to biologyMolecules, cells and industrial biotechnology
Area of Biology
NeurobiologyPhysiology
Techniques & Approaches
EngineeringMathematics / StatisticsMicroscopy / ElectrophysiologySimulation / Modelling