Vibrissal coding in hippocampus
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Author: Prof. Antonio Pereira, Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal/Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil
Author: Prof. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, Duke University, NC, USA
Dr. Antonio Pereira accepted the invitation on 17 August 2009 (self-imposed deadline: 17 February 2010).
Dr. Antonio Pereira, Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience, Natal Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil, was invited on 17 August 2009.
Dr. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis accepted the invitation on 4 June 2008 (self-imposed deadline: 4 November 2008).
We depend on haptic exploration to understand the world around us effectively. Tactile inputs arise from specialized receptors on the periphery, that are sensitive to mechanical, thermal, and painful stimuli. The hippocampus has been associated with the capacity for declarative memory in humans. There is evidence that the mammalian hippocampus plays an important role in navigation, by creating a map-like representation of the spatial environment. To be useful, however, this map needs to be constantly updated whenever some relevant feature changes in the outside world. Several studies have shown that the hippocampus and other structures in the medial temporal lobe are crucially involved with novelty detection. Novelty detection calls for a system that is able to hold detailed models of the environment and keep track of changes that violate specific predictions of this model. The hippocampal CA1 field provides just this type of system by comparing sensory inputs from the entorhinal cortex with information stored in the CA3 field. Surprisingly, however, despite the wealth of anatomical connections indirectly linking the hippocampus to sensory areas in the cerebral cortex, little is known about the processing of sensory signals in this crucial part of the brain.
| Invited by: | Prof. Tony J. Prescott, Dept Psychology, Univ of Sheffield, UK |
