Positional firing properties of perirhinal cortex neurons

Neuroreport. 1998 Sep 14;9(13):3013-8. doi: 10.1097/00001756-199809140-00017.

Abstract

Neuronal activity in the perirhinal cortex was recorded while rats performed a spatial task on a four arm radial maze. The maze was defined by proximal multisensory cues on the arm surfaces and distal complex visual cues at the surround. During each recording session, rats were run in three conditions: baseline, a condition in which proximal and distal cues were manipulated, and a second baseline. Compared with the activity of hippocampal neurons in the same paradigm, a much smaller proportion of perirhinal neurons exhibited spatial selectivity and perirhinal place fields were larger than hippocampal place fields. Although perirhinal place fields exhibited a high degree of spatial tuning and reliability within a condition, they were not stable across conditions.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal / physiology
  • Cues
  • Electric Stimulation
  • Electrodes, Implanted
  • Entorhinal Cortex / cytology*
  • Entorhinal Cortex / physiology*
  • Hippocampus / physiology
  • Male
  • Maze Learning / physiology
  • Neurons / physiology*
  • Odorants
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Rats
  • Rats, Long-Evans
  • Reward
  • Space Perception / physiology*