Hi all 😃
Our latest #Review on #SplitterCells is now published in @eLife !!
I will probably write a real thread on it when I get a chance... for now:
link: https://elifesciences.org/articles/82357
why: some neurons in the #Hippocampus (and other brain regions) of #Rats (and other mammals) have the fascinating ability to discriminate not just different presents, but different past or future states or trajectories in the same current situation. They could be related to #EpisodicMemory or #DecisionMaking 🤔They are called 'trajectory-dependent cells' or Splitter Cells. 🔀 We tried to make sense of them!
what: Hippocampal Splitter cells do a lot of puzzling stuff. For example there's a lot of them even in tasks that do not require the Hippocampus to be solved. They spread asymmetrically on a linear track leading to a choice point - 'past' splitters around the start and 'future' splitters towards the choice point. #TimeCells cells can be splitter cells (but they're usually #PlaceCells). Splitter cells evolve with experience, or maybe it is performance, nobody really knows. ⁉️ ... and a lot more weird stuff
conclusion: Two different computational models, the temporal context model and the latent state model, each explain a subset of the properties of splitter cells... so perhaps the Hippocampus implements both! But more experiments are needed to disentangle them 😄
now what: questions or comments? Please let us know!! ✍️
@elduvelle @eLife El this is one to be super proud of, congrats!! Amazing how much ground you cover - I did a quick read but lots to dig into further. Writing is very clear for such a complex topic. Great service to the field!
@elduvelle Be patient. He told me he’s holding out for a “mattstodon” instance before joining.
@beneuroscience @eLife
Thank you Ben!! This means a lot!!
Most of the good stuff in it comes from Matt (van der Meer) - not on Mastodon yet. Including the figures!