Adaptive integration of self-motion and goals in posterior parietal cortex.

TitleAdaptive integration of self-motion and goals in posterior parietal cortex.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2022
AuthorsAlexander AS, Tung JC, G Chapman W, Conner AM, Shelley LE, Hasselmo ME, Nitz DA
JournalCell Rep
Volume38
Issue10
Pagination110504
Date Published2022 Mar 08
ISSN2211-1247
Abstract

Rats readily switch between foraging and more complex navigational behaviors such as pursuit of other rats or prey. These tasks require vastly different tracking of multiple behaviorally significant variables including self-motion state. To explore whether navigational context modulates self-motion tracking, we examined self-motion tuning in posterior parietal cortex neurons during foraging versus visual target pursuit. Animals performing the pursuit task demonstrate predictive processing of target trajectories by anticipating and intercepting them. Relative to foraging, pursuit yields multiplicative gain modulation of self-motion tuning and enhances self-motion state decoding. Self-motion sensitivity in parietal cortex neurons is, on average, history dependent regardless of behavioral context, but the temporal window of self-motion integration extends during target pursuit. Finally, many self-motion-sensitive neurons conjunctively track the visual target position relative to the animal. Thus, posterior parietal cortex functions to integrate the location of navigationally relevant target stimuli into an ongoing representation of past, present, and future locomotor trajectories.

DOI10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110504
Alternate JournalCell Rep
PubMed ID35263604
Category: 
IRG Funded