Three-dimensional head-direction coding in the bat brain.

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0410462 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1476-4687 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00280836 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Nature Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Basingstoke : Nature Publishing Group
Original Publication: London, Macmillan Journals ltd.

Models, Neurological* ; Rotation*; Brain/*cytology ; Brain/*physiology ; Chiroptera/*physiology ; Head/*physiology ; Space Perception/*physiology; Animals ; Brain/anatomy & histology ; Chiroptera/anatomy & histology ; Flight, Animal/physiology ; Male ; Orientation/physiology ; Posture/physiology ; Spatial Memory/physiology

Navigation requires a sense of direction ('compass'), which in mammals is thought to be provided by head-direction cells, neurons that discharge when the animal's head points to a specific azimuth. However, it remains unclear whether a three-dimensional (3D) compass exists in the brain. Here we conducted neural recordings in bats, mammals well-adapted to 3D spatial behaviours, and found head-direction cells tuned to azimuth, pitch or roll, or to conjunctive combinations of 3D angles, in both crawling and flying bats. Head-direction cells were organized along a functional-anatomical gradient in the presubiculum, transitioning from 2D to 3D representations. In inverted bats, the azimuth-tuning of neurons shifted by 180°, suggesting that 3D head direction is represented in azimuth × pitch toroidal coordinates. Consistent with our toroidal model, pitch-cell tuning was unimodal, circular, and continuous within the available 360° of pitch. Taken together, these results demonstrate a 3D head-direction mechanism in mammals, which could support navigation in 3D space.

Comment in: Nature. 2015 Jan 8;517(7533):156-7. (PMID: 25470063)

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Date Created: 20141204 Date Completed: 20150219 Latest Revision: 20181113

20231215

10.1038/nature14031

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