The way in which experience shapes the activity of hippocampal place cells to create flexible cognitive cards

The brain of mammals is known to produce mental representations of the space environment, called cognitive cards, which help humans and animals to sail in their environment. A subpopulation of neurons in the CA1 area of ​​the Hippocampus, which are called place cells (PC), have proven to be active when animals visit specific places or locations in their environment.

The activation of these cells was previously linked to the coding of information related to space and the objective, which was to support the creation of cognitive cards. While many previous studies have explored the function of PCs and their contribution to the creation of cognitive cards, the role of experience in the formation of the creation of these cards has not yet been elucidated.

Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine recently highlighted the mechanisms by which experience could influence the coding of information by PCs. Their results, published in Nature neuroscienceSuggest that experiences produce an adjustment of synaptic entry into the brain of the mouse, which in turn affects the activity of PCs, allowing the production of flexible cognitive cards.

“Hippocampal PCs CA1 code both information referenced to space and objective to support a cognitive card,” wrote Fish Kunxun Qian, Yiding Li and Jeffrey C. Magee in their article. “The mechanism of this reference and the role of the experience remains poorly understood. Here, we have recorded the PC activity longitudinally, while the mice fixed to the head have carried out a space learning task on a treadmill.”

Essentially, Qian, Li and Magee recorded the activity of PCs in the hippocampus, especially in the CA1 area, in the brain of 22 adult mice when they were doing a space learning task. The recordings were collected using two techniques: two photon imaging and intracellular recording in vivo via an implanted electrode.

“In a familiar environment, the CA1 representation consisted of PCs which were referenced either to specific space locations or to a reward objective in approximately equal proportions,” wrote Qian, Li and Magee. “However, the CA1 representation has become mainly referenced by objectives during the exhibition to a new environment, because the PCs referenced on the space have changed references in an adaptive manner.”

The recordings collected by this team of researchers suggest that when the mice start to navigate a new environment, the representations produced by the cells in the Place de la Region CA1 of their hippocampus are becoming more and more oriented towards the objectives. This suggests that animal experience influences the creation of cognitive cards, which guarantee that these cards help them best accomplish space tasks and achieve their objectives.

“The potential recordings of the intracellular membrane revealed that individual CA1 neurons simultaneously received the synaptic inputs referenced to space and the objective, and the relationship of these entries was correlated with individual PC referencing,” wrote Qian, Li and Magee. “In addition, PC references in the form of behavioral synaptic plasticity in the form of plasticity. Together. Together. Together, these results suggest that the adjustment dependent on the experience of synaptic input forms referencing to support a flexible cognitive card.”

Overall, the recent results collected by Qian, Li and Magee suggest that in mice, the adjustment of cognitive cards based on experience can at least partly be explained by the dynamic reorganization of synaptic entries. Future studies could further test this hypothesis and validate the results of the team, improving the current understanding of neural processes supporting the learning and spatial navigation based on experience.

© 2025 Science X Network