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Authors & Affiliations
Marin Dauguet, Flavia Aluisi, Mark Wexler, Jean Laurens, Michael Graupner, Desdemona Fricker
Abstract
Head-direction (HD) cells function as the brain's neuronal compass. Their activity is based on vestibular signals and controlled by visual landmarks. The integration of multisensory signals during passive rotation and the role of the presubiculum in merging vestibular and visual inputs are yet to be fully understood.We manipulated vestibular and visual cues using a novel paradigm. Head-fixed mice were rotated on a motorized platform in a pseudo-random fashion, covering all angles, while surrounded by a semi-transparent dome displaying visual cues. Using Neuropixel probes, we investigated the activity of individual neurons and populations in the subicular regions and the visual cortex.We recorded in the room as a control condition, as compared to test conditions where a visual landmark on the dome was shifted to assess cue effects on directionally tuned signals. Recording in darkness evaluated signal stability in the absence of visual cues. Angular tuning was assessed by dividing spikes per bin occupancy, and computing Rayleigh’s vector for each neuron.We found that subicular and visual cells map a neuronal compass. We found coherence across conditions for subicular tuned cells even in darkness, as expected for HD cells, but less so for visual cortical neurons. These results show we can record coherent signals from subicular neurons that are influenced by virtual visual cues in our passive rotation paradigm. This research offers new insight into multisensory integration and HD functions.