Future experiments, using, for example, cell-type-specific optogenetic manipulations will be able to dissociate the contributions of these two inputs. Indeed, cholinergic input is thought to play an important role in novelty processing by place cells. Pifithrin-�� mouse However, Brandon et al. (2014)’s findings indicate that neither the septal cholinergic input nor the theta rhythmicity are required for the formation of novel place cell representations. The relationship between place

cell remapping and grid cell firing has been the subject of much study. For example, shifts in the spatial firing patterns of different modules of grid cells relative to each other (Stensola et al., 2012) might drive the remapping of place cells. However, the reverse relationship is also possible, that place cells anchor the grid firing patterns to the environment Icotinib datasheet (e.g., Burgess and O’Keefe, 2011), or place cell remapping might be independent of grid shifts (which occur during environmental

manipulations that do not typically cause place cell remapping, cf. O’Keefe and Burgess, 1996 and Stensola et al., 2012). Finally, it is important to note the presence of cells in the mEC encoding direction. These cells appear to be fully present at the earliest developmental stage at which rat pups begin to move from the nest and are thought to contribute to both types of input to place cells. They are required for encoding environmental boundaries (for which the BVCs need directional tuning as well as distance tuning) and for path integration, for which representations need to be updated in terms of movement direction, whether via theta-related mechanisms or within a continuous attractor chart (albeit that these cells encode head direction rather than movement direction). As with the locational tuning of place cells, the directional tuning of these cells also shows a combination of environmental input and updating by self-motion, and rotation of their directional tuning goes hand-in-hand with rotation of the orientation of place and grid representations. In summary, Brandon et al. (2014)’s results shed light on how the place cell representation of

space is built and bring the focus Rutecarpine back onto sensory environmental inputs, such as boundary vector cells, with a supporting role for theta rhythmicity and grid cell firing patterns, which have been associated with spatial representation based on path integration. “
“Discovery of gene products vital for function of a biological system, using gene-interference studies at has become increasing popular because of the capability for RNAi methods for manipulating multiple cellular components in either biased or unbiased manner. These experiments aspire to identify high-confidence “hit” sets as putatively responsible for an experimental phenotype and conceivably imaginable as drug “targets”, although requiring dedicated follow-up tests to buttress confidence in validity.