Data from: Spatial encoding in primate hippocampus during free navigation

The hippocampus comprises two neural signals – place cells and theta oscillations - that contribute to facets of spatial navigation. While their complementary relationship has been well established in rodents, their respective contributions in the primate brain during free navigation remains unclear. Here we recorded neural activity in the hippocampus of freely-moving marmosets as they naturally explored a spatial environment to more explicitly investigate this issue. We report place cells in marmoset hippocampus during free-navigation that exhibit remarkable parallels to analogous neurons in other mammalian species. Although theta oscillations were prevalent in the marmoset hippocampus, the patterns of activity were notably different than in other taxa. This local field potential oscillation occurred in bouts – rather than continuously – and was neither significantly modulated by locomotion nor consistently coupled to place cell activity. These findings suggest that the relationship between place cell activity and theta oscillations in primate hippocampus during free navigation differs substantially from rodents and paint an intriguing comparative picture regarding the neural basis of spatial navigation across mammals.PLoSBio_Data_01PLoSBio_Data_02PLoSBio_Data_03PLoSBio_Data_04PLoSBio_Data_05PLoSBio_Data_06PLoSBio_Data_07Data_OrganizationFunding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001Award Number: IIP-171913