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The orbitofrontal cortex maps future navigational goals.

ABSTRACT: Accurate navigation to a desired goal requires consecutive estimates of spatial relationships between the current position and future destination throughout the journey. Although neurons in the hippocampal formation can represent the position of an animal as well as its nearby trajectories^1-7, their role in determining the destination of the animal has been questioned^8,9. It is, thus, unclear whether the brain can possess a precise estimate of target location during active environmental exploration. Here we describe neurons in the rat orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) that form spatial representations persistently pointing to the subsequent goal destination of an animal throughout navigation. This destination coding emerges before the onset of navigation, without direct sensory access to a distal goal, and even predicts the incorrect destination of an animal at the beginning of an error trial. Goal representations in the OFC are maintained by destination-specific neural ensemble dynamics, and their brief perturbation at the onset of a journey led to a navigational error. These findings suggest that the OFC is part of the internal goal map of the brain, enabling animals to navigate precisely to a chosen destination that is beyond the range of sensory perception.

SUBMITTER: Basu R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8599015 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The orbitofrontal cortex maps future navigational goals.

Basu Raunak R Gebauer Robert R Herfurth Tim T Kolb Simon S Golipour Zahra Z Tchumatchenko Tatjana T Ito Hiroshi T HT

Nature 20211027 7885

Accurate navigation to a desired goal requires consecutive estimates of spatial relationships between the current position and future destination throughout the journey. Although neurons in the hippocampal formation can represent the position of an animal as well as its nearby trajectories<sup>1-7</sup>, their role in determining the destination of the animal has been questioned<sup>8,9</sup>. It is, thus, unclear whether the brain can possess a precise estimate of target location during active ...[more]

PMID: 34707289

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Project description:The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and hippocampus share striking cognitive and functional similarities. As a result, both structures have been proposed to encode "cognitive maps" that provide useful scaffolds for planning complex behaviors. However, while this function has been exemplified by spatial coding in neurons of hippocampal regions-particularly place and grid cells-spatial representations in the OFC have been investigated far less. Here we sought to address this by recording OFC neurons from male rats engaged in an open-field foraging task like that originally developed to characterize place fields in rodent hippocampal neurons. Single-unit activity was recorded as rats searched for food pellets scattered randomly throughout a large enclosure. In some sessions, particular flavors of food occurred more frequently in particular parts of the enclosure; in others, only a single flavor was used. OFC neurons showed spatially localized firing fields in both conditions, and representations changed between flavored and unflavored foraging periods in a manner reminiscent of remapping in the hippocampus. Compared with hippocampal recordings taken under similar behavioral conditions, OFC spatial representations were less temporally reliable, and there was no significant evidence of grid tuning in OFC neurons. These data confirm that OFC neurons show spatial firing fields in a large, two-dimensional environment in a manner similar to hippocampus. Consistent with the focus of the OFC on biological meaning and goals, spatial coding was weaker than in hippocampus and influenced by outcome identity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and hippocampus have both been proposed to encode "cognitive maps" that provide useful scaffolds for planning complex behaviors. This function is exemplified by place and grid cells identified in hippocampus, the activity of which maps spatial environments. The current study directly demonstrates very similar, though not identical, spatial representatives in OFC neurons, confirming that OFC-like hippocampus-can represent a spatial map under the appropriate experimental conditions.

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The orbitofrontal cortex maps future navigational goals.

Publications

The orbitofrontal cortex maps future navigational goals.

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