Multiplexed representation of others in the hippocampal CA1 subfield of female mice

作者：Xiang Zhang, Qichen Cao, Kai Gao, Cong Chen, Sihui Cheng, Ang Li, Yuqian Zhou, Ruojin Liu, Jun Hao, Emilio Kropff, Chenglin Miao · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-024-47453-8 · 被引用次数：14 · 研究领域：Memory and Neural Mechanisms、Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research、Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications

Hippocampal place cells represent the position of a rodent within an environment. In addition, recent experiments show that the CA1 subfield of a passive observer also represents the position of a conspecific performing a spatial task. However, whether this representation is allocentric, egocentric or mixed is less clear. In this study we investigated the representation of others during free behavior and in a task where female mice learned to follow a conspecific for a reward. We found that most cells represent the position of others relative to self-position (social-vector cells) rather than to the environment, with a prevalence of purely egocentric coding modulated by context and mouse identity. Learning of a pursuit task improved the tuning of social-vector cells, but their number remained invariant. Collectively, our results suggest that the hippocampus flexibly codes the position of others in multiple coordinate systems, albeit favoring the self as a reference point.