ArticleBehavioral neuroscience2015
The head direction cell system and behavior: The effects of lesions to the lateral mammillary bodies on spatial memory in a novel landmark task and in the water maze.
Article in Behavioral neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Two Molecularly Defined Neuronal Types in the Mammillary Body Govern Different Temporal Periods during Working Memory Maintenance.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Cell-Type Specific Circuits in the Mammillary Body for Place and Object Recognition Memory.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Construction of complex memories via parallel distributed cortical-subcortical iterative integration.Trends in neurosciences · 2022Review
- Why Isn't the Head Direction System Necessary for Direction? Lessons From the Lateral Mammillary Nuclei.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2019Article
- Lesions within the head direction system reduce retrosplenial c-fos expression but do not impair performance on a radial-arm maze task.Behavioural brain research · 2018Article
- Lesions of the Head Direction Cell System Increase Hippocampal Place Field Repetition.Current biology : CB · 2017Article
- The Head-Direction Signal Plays a Functional Role as a Neural Compass during Navigation.Current biology : CB · 2017Article
- Comparable reduction in Zif268 levels and cytochrome oxidase activity in the retrosplenial cortex following mammillothalamic tract lesions.Neuroscience · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
The head direction system is composed of neurons found in a number of connected brain areas that fire in a sharply tuned, directional way. The function of this system, however, has not been fully established. To assess this, we devised a novel spatial landmark task, comparable to the paradigms in which stimulus control has been assessed for spatially tuned neurons. The task took place in a large cylinder and required rats to dig in a specific sand cup, from among 16 alternatives, to obtain a food reward. The reinforced cup was in a fixed location relative to a salient landmark, and probe sessions confirmed that the landmark exerted stimulus control over the rats' cup choices. To assess the contribution of the head direction cell system to this memory task, half of the animals received ibotenic acid infusions into the lateral mammillary nuclei (LMN), an essential node in the head direction network, while the other received sham lesions. No differences were observed in performance of this task between the 2 groups. Animals with LMN lesions were impaired, however, in reversal learning on a water maze task. These results suggest that the LMN, and potentially the head direction cell system, are not essential for the use of visual landmarks to guide spatial behavior.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.