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This preprint recording CA1 pyramidal cells during a virtual reality Watermaze task looks very interesting!
"the majority of cells encoded path distance from the start of trials"
I definitely need to read it!
From @Neuro_Physics lab
https://twitter.com/biorxiv_neursci/status/1345222095530319874
"the majority of cells encoded path distance from the start of trials"
I definitely need to read it!
From @Neuro_Physics lab
https://twitter.com/biorxiv_neursci/status/1345222095530319874
Some more cool figures:
Interesting that none of the cells has a unique place field!
Interesting that none of the cells has a unique place field!
Strongly reminds me of this paper from @hugospiers et al also finding a relation between place cell firing and distance to goal, modulated by behavioural performance:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hipo.22813
(Maybe the authors could cite & discuss it
)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hipo.22813
(Maybe the authors could cite & discuss it
)
Read it! My remarks (in case anyone is interested, open for discussion of course):
1. Results are actually slightly different from Spiers et al where distance to goal coding was found; here it is mostly distance from start. Still close enough that it should be discussed though
1. Results are actually slightly different from Spiers et al where distance to goal coding was found; here it is mostly distance from start. Still close enough that it should be discussed though
2. The watermaze task is *not* thought to be mediated by path integration (said in the intro); I don't see how this VR task could be either, PI allows to return to a start point, not reach a goal that you did not just come from.
3. Wondering if the authors have tested whether the order of cells firing is the same (or correlated) for different trajectories to goal (especially from different start locations) i.e. HPC encoding sequences? Could test if fields on long trajs are larger. 
4. Also wondering if part of the results cannot be explained by contamination from reactivation data (eg increased activity at the start) - have the authors tried speed-filtering (removing all low-speed data) or removing Sharp-wave / ripple activity? 
5. Taking together these and other results it seems that hippocampal cells in VR always act quite differently from real-world, seen here with an apparent absence of "real" place cells! Someone should do a review on similarities and differences between VR and RW... 
6. Overall I find this work very well-done and very interesting! Congratulations to all authors
It's great to see more 2D VR tasks with varied trajectories.
It's great to see more 2D VR tasks with varied trajectories.
