Topic: odour cues

Learning relationships between cues in our environment enables us to recognise common underlying structures of events and is thought to form the basis of episodic memory. This type of learning - often called relational or structural learning - requires retaining the identity of a stimulus as well as its relation to other cues, for example its position in time or location in space. One area implicated in structural learning is the hippocampus. Specifically, neurons in the CA1 area of the hippocampus have been shown to represent variables essential for constructing a relational structure of the

To behave optimally, animals build models of the world based on structural regularities to allow accurate prediction of the value of actions. Although powerful, the computational expense of updating these models limits their usefulness in ever-changing environments. Theoretical models have suggested that a way around these limitations is to separate the representation of structure from the associated value, allowing values to be rapidly updated when necessary. However, it is still unclear how this is implemented in the brain. To address this, we developed an odour-based task that requires mice

The meaning of individual events or cues in the environment is often dependent on their position relative to other cues surrounding them. The ability to learn about relationships between such ambiguous cues – often called structural learning – enables us to recognise common underlying structures of events and is thought to form the basis of episodic memory. One area implicated in structural learning is the hippocampus. Specifically, neurons in the CA1 area of the hippocampus have been shown to represent variables such as cue configurations and their order in space and time. To investigate the