AS: The "high-precision compass" of the brain - a new type of head-direction cell in the somatosensory cortex

Abstract: Zhang Shengjia's research group from the Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University used free-motion multi-channel electrophysiological recording technology to identify for the first time that there are both excitatory and inhibitory head direction cells in the somatosensory cortex.
Among them, inhibitory head direction cells Clustered firing and stronger orientation selectivity were present, suggesting that inhibitory neurons encode instantaneous head orientation information with greater precision and sensitivity
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Key words: Advanced Science, Spatial Navigation, Head Orientation Cells, Somatosensory Cortex, Army Medical University Orientation and navigation ability are the foundation on which we live
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The ability to get from one place to another is due to the subtle "built-in GPS" inside the brain, which is similar to Baidu Maps and is responsible for mapping the cognitive map inside the brain to guide us for positioning and navigation
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The classical spatial navigation system consists of place cells in the hippocampus, grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, head direction cells and border cells, etc.
John O'Keefe, May-Britt, three scientists who pioneered research on the "built-in GPS" of the brain Moser and Edvard Moser were awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
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Expanding a new spatial navigation system Although the classic spatial navigation theory believes that the hippocampus-entorhinal cortex is the only center mediating the brain's spatial navigation system, clinical studies have found that the hippocampus of stroke patients can still find their way home after damage, suggesting that There may be other spatial navigation systems outside the hippocampus; on the other hand, patients with severely damaged somatosensory cortex have a sharp decline in the perception of spatial orientation, indicating that there may be a new function of spatial orientation perception in the somatosensory cortex
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Inspired by this, Zhang Shengjia's team's previous research found that a variety of spatial navigation cells similar to those in the hippocampus-entorhinal cortex neural network coexist in a single brain area of ​​the somatosensory neocortex, forming a new and complete set of "brain GPS".
Extends the classical theory of space navigation systems
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Demystifying the brain's "high-precision compass" head direction cells serve as the brain's internal compass and are a key component of the brain's spatial navigation system
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When an animal's head is pointed in a specific direction, the head-direction cells fire selectively
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Previous studies have found that head direction cells are mainly encoded by excitatory neurons and exhibit strong direction selectivity, while inhibitory neurons show weaker head direction tuning.
No literature reports that inhibitory neurons encode direction selection.
Strong head-directed cells
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Zhang Shengjia's research group from the Neurosurgery Department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University used free-motion multi-channel electrophysiological recording technology to collect electrical signals in the somatosensory cortex of rats when they were exploring the environment in the open field
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First, by correlating the animal's instantaneous head orientation with the action potentials of individual neurons, specific firing head orientation cells were identified
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Then, the neurons were classified by action potential waveform and firing frequency, and it was found that the head direction cells of somatosensory cortex can be mainly divided into two categories: regular firing excitatory neurons with broad-wave low frequency and fast-firing inhibitory neurons with narrow-wave high frequency cells, in which inhibitory neurons exhibit cluster firing and greater directional selectivity
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Further differentiating the head orientation to obtain the head angular velocity revealed that the angular velocity cells were also mainly characterized by inhibitory neurons
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The ring attractor model is considered to be the mechanism by which the brain generates head orientation signals, and its basic components include head orientation and head angular velocity-encoding neurons
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The somatosensory cortex has all the basic components of the ring attractor model, so the head orientation signal can be generated within a single brain region of the somatosensory cortex
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The new findings were published in Advanced Science
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Breaking through the classic orientation perception principle.
By exploring the new brain area outside the hippocampus of the classical brain spatial navigation system, the study found head direction cells and head angular velocity cells in the somatosensory cortex; at the same time, it was identified that this kind of brain high-precision compass cell is composed of Inhibitory neuron encoding of fast burst firing, this new discovery not only expands the traditional view that head-directed cells are encoded primarily by excitatory neurons, but also breaks through the often less selective encoding of external sensory stimuli by inhibitory neurons.
Classical theory, the first at the single-cell level to reveal the neural coding mechanism of narrowly tuned head orientation cells
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WILEY paper information: Sharp Tuning of Head Direction and Angular Head Velocity Cells in the Somatosensory CortexXiaoyang Long, Bin Deng, Calvin K.
Young, Guo-Long Liu, Zeqi Zhong, Qian Chen, Hui Yang, Sheng-Qing Lv, Zhe Sage Chen , Sheng-Jia Zhang*Advanced ScienceDOI: 10.
1002/advs.
202200020Click "Read the original text" in the lower left corner to view the original text of the paper
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