Topic: visual landmarks

Understanding how the brain builds maps of novel environments on behavioral timescales (seconds-minutes) is a fundamental question for neuroscience. Theoretical works posit a Hebbian plasticity mechanism for integrating novel landmarks [1]. Drosophila have been shown to use such a mechanism to integrate novel landmarks on timescales of minutes [2,3]. However, current evidence suggests that plasticity in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) operates on the timescale of days [4] — leaving open the question of how the mammalian brain maps novel environments on behavioral timescales. Here we investi

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 a