In an area of the brain known as the hippocampus , there are peculiar neurons know as topographic point cells . These fire up whenever an animal enter a peculiar station in its surround . The firing up of these cells construct a “ cognitive map ” in the brain , and has allowed scientists to lick out where a rat is base on which nerve cell are active . Now , researcher have also bring off to determine where the rat will go next .
As reported in the journalNeuron , the squad noticed that the activating of a particular place cell could be linked to either where the rat was or where it was going . They placed rats in an eight - sleeve maze , where three arm contained hidden food . The squad used this set up to quiz both reference memory , which allows the squealer to remember which arms contain food and which do n’t , and working memory , which provide the blabber to remember which sleeve it has confabulate and which it still needs to explore .
The squad was able to study the sacking of place cellphone during the task . In reference retentiveness trial , the sequence of place cell firing up gave the researchers an idea of where the rat was going to go next .
" This gives us an insight into what the animal is think about space , " older author Jozsef Csicsvari , from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria , said in astatement . " We used this concept to understand how dirty dog call back during tasks that essay their spacial retentivity . The animal is call up about a dissimilar place than the one it is in . In fact , we can predict which arm the squealer will record next . "
The team could augur more than just where the puke was going . They could also assure when a betrayer was about to go down the wrong way . " When the rat makes a mistake , it replays a random route , " Csicsvari added . " Based on the place cells , we can predict that the rat will make a error before it commit it . "
While the research is very exciting with obedience to reference memory , it ’s not applicable to figure out memory . In work retentivity job , the firing patterns only corresponded to the last arm visited by the rat . These two approaches are accessed in different ways by the genius .
" With reference memory , the brainpower truly navigates and remembers that ' this is a emplacement I have to go to ' , " read Csicsvari . " This practice the hippocampus , which is important for spatial labor . Working memory is more abstract , each location is an item on the animal ’s list of places to visit . The hippocampus plausibly signals to the prefrontal cerebral cortex where the blabber was , and the prefrontal cerebral mantle keeps track of which items it can tick off " . "
