Topic: ring attractor

The head direction (HD) system is classically modeled as a ring attractor network which ensures a stable representation of the animal’s head direction. This unidimensional description popularized the view of the HD system as the brain’s internal compass. However, unlike a globally consistent magnetic compass, the orientation of the HD system is dynamic, depends on local cues and exhibits remapping across familiar environments5. Such a system requires mechanisms to remember and align to familiar landmarks, which may not be well described within the classic 1-dimensional framework. To search for

Ants, bees and other insects have the ability to return to their nest or hive using a navigation strategy known as path integration. Similarly, fruit flies employ path integration to return to a previously visited food source. An important component of path integration is the ability of the insect to keep track of its heading relative to salient visual cues. A highly conserved brain region known as the central complex has been identified as being of key importance for the computations required for an insect to keep track of its heading. However, the similarities or differences of the underlyin

The exclusive attribution of working memory (WM) retention to persistent frontal activity [1,2] has been questioned by implications of spike-silent WM [3] in early visual cortex (EVC) [4,5,6]. Spike-silent WM might partly be explained by short-term plasticity (STP) [7], where perceptual encoding leaves a neural trace that can be retrieved using perturbation methods [8,9]. However, STP traces cannot easily withstand continual visual stimulation. In contrast, $modulatory$ top-down feedback [10] (i.e., altering spiking propensity without inducing spiking directly [11]) from frontal regions to EVC

Experimental studies have demonstrated that spontaneous task-independent replay of sequences encoding a learned route during sharp-wave–ripple (SWR) events can be beneficial for consolidating path memory [1] and discovering new behavioral strategies, such as forming novel space-action representations, finding shortcuts, and integrating and associating different routes[2]. Additionally, It has been shown experimentally that hippocampal theta sequences, generated during active exploration of the environment, play a crucial role in selecting appropriate actions in goal-directed tasks[3,4]. Howeve