Hippocampal cellular and network activity in freely moving echolocating bats.

Full Abstract

The hippocampus is crucial for episodic and spatial memory. In freely moving rodents, hippocampal pyramidal neurons show spatially selective firing when the animal passes through a neuron's 'place-field', and theta-band oscillation is continuously present during locomotion. Here we report the first hippocampal recordings from echolocating bats, mammals phylogenetically distant from rodents, which showed place cells very similar to those of rodents. High-frequency 'ripple' oscillations were also rodent-like. Theta oscillation, however, differed from rodents in two important ways:
(i) theta occurred when bats explored the environment without locomoting, using distal sensing through echolocation, and (ii) theta was not continuous, but occurred in short intermittent bouts. The intermittence of theta suggests that models of hippocampal function that rely on continuous theta may not apply to bats. Our data support the hypothesis that theta oscillation in the mammalian hippocampus is involved in sequence learning and hence, theta power should increase with sensory-input rate-which explains why theta power correlates with running speed in rodents and with echolocation call rate in bats.

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Author information

Author/s: Ulanovsky, Nachum (N); Moss, Cynthia F (CF);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. nulanovsky(-atsign-)psyc.umd.edu

Grants: R01 MH56366 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Nature neuroscience (Nat Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Feb; vol 10 (issue 2) : pp 224-33

Dates: Created 2007/01/29; Completed 2007/04/03; Revised 2007/12/03;

PMID: 17220886, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Action Potentials - physiology
Animals
Biological Clocks - physiology
Chiroptera - anatomy & histology; physiology
Echolocation - physiology
Hippocampus - anatomy & histology; physiology
Learning - physiology
Motor Activity - physiology

Motor Activity - physiology
Movement - physiology
Nerve Net - physiology
Orientation - physiology
Rodentia - anatomy & histology; physiology
Space Perception - physiology
Species Specificity
Theta Rhythm

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