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PMID: 26017312 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

A prefrontal-thalamo-hippocampal circuit for goal-directed spatial navigation.

Nature ·Vol. 522 ·No. 7554 ·2015-06-04 ·Pages 50-5

Ito HT, Zhang SJ, Witter MP, Moser EI, Moser MB

Abstract

Spatial navigation requires information about the relationship between current and future positions. The activity of hippocampal neurons appears to reflect such a relationship, representing not only instantaneous position but also the path towards a goal location. However, how the hippocampus obtains information about goal direction is poorly understood. Here we report a prefrontal-thalamic neural circuit that is required for hippocampal representation of routes or trajectories through the environment. Trajectory-dependent firing was observed in medial prefrontal cortex, the nucleus reuniens of the thalamus, and the CA1 region of the hippocampus in rats. Lesioning or optogenetic silencing of the nucleus reuniens substantially reduced trajectory-dependent CA1 firing. Trajectory-dependent activity was almost absent in CA3, which does not receive nucleus reuniens input. The data suggest that projections from medial prefrontal cortex, via the nucleus reuniens, are crucial for representation of the future path during goal-directed behaviour and point to the thalamus as a key node in networks for long-range communication between cortical regions involved in navigation.

MeSH Terms
Action Potentials Animals CA1 Region, Hippocampal/cytology,physiology CA3 Region, Hippocampal/cytology,physiology Goals Male Maze Learning Midline Thalamic Nuclei/cytology,physiology Neural Pathways/physiology Neurons/physiology Optogenetics Prefrontal Cortex/cytology,physiology Rats Rats, Long-Evans Spatial Navigation/physiology Thalamus/cytology,physiology
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Ito Hiroshi T
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrres gate 9, MTFS, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Zhang Sheng-Jia
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrres gate 9, MTFS, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Witter Menno P
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrres gate 9, MTFS, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Moser Edvard I
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrres gate 9, MTFS, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Moser May-Britt
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrres gate 9, MTFS, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
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Article Info
Journal
Nature
Abbr.
Nature
ISSN
1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/nature14396
Published
2015-06-04
Epub
2015-00-27
Pages
50-5
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0410462
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1038/nature14396 View journal details
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