Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive Different CA1 and CA3 Representations of Novel Routes in a Shortcut Situation

Place cells are hippocampal neuronswhose discharge is strongly related to a rat’s location in its environment. The existence of place cells has led to the proposal that they are part of an integrated neural system dedicated to spatial navigation. To further understand the relationships between place cell firing and spatial problem solving, we examined the discharge of CA1 and CA3 place cells as rats were exposed to a shortcut in a runwaymaze. On specific sessions, a wall section of the maze was removed so as to open a shorter novel route within the otherwise familiar maze. We found that the discharge of both CA1 and CA3 cells was strongly affected in the vicinity of the shortcut regionbutwasmuch less affected farther away. In addition, CA3 fields away from the shortcutweremore altered thanCA1 fields. Thus, place cell firing appears to reflect more than just the animal’s spatial location and may provide additional information about possiblemotions, or routes, within the environment. This kinematic representation appears to be spatiallymore extended in CA3 than in CA1, suggesting interesting computational differences between the two subregions. Key words: hippocampus; unit recordings; place cells; spatial processing; rat; spatial cognitio