| Paper: | PS-1A.6 | ||
| Session: | Poster Session 1A | ||
| Location: | H Lichthof | ||
| Session Time: | Saturday, September 14, 16:30 - 19:30 | ||
| Presentation Time: | Saturday, September 14, 16:30 - 19:30 | ||
| Presentation: | Poster | ||
| Publication: | 2019 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, 13-16 September 2019, Berlin, Germany | ||
| Paper Title: | Generalisation of structural knowledge in hippocampal – prefrontal circuits | ||
| Manuscript: | Click here to view manuscript | ||
| License: |  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. |
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| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.32470/CCN.2019.1121-0 | ||
| Authors: | Veronika Samborska, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, United Kingdom; Thomas Akam, Department of Experimental Psychology, United Kingdom; James Butler, Institute of Neurology, United Kingdom; Mark Walton, Department of Experimental Psychology, United Kingdom; Timothy Behrens, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, United Kingdom | ||
| Abstract: | The ability to generalise previously learned knowledge to solve novel analogous problems relies on formation of representations that are abstracted from sensory states. Little is known about how the brain generalises abstract representations while maintaining the content of individual experiences. Here we present a novel behavioural paradigm for investigating generalisation of structural knowledge in mice and report electrophysiological findings from single neurons in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Mice serially performed a set of reversal learning tasks, which shared the same structure (e.g., one choice port is good at a time), but had different physical configurations and hence different sensory and motor representations. Subjects’ performance on novel configurations improved with the number of configurations they had already learned, demonstrating generalisation of knowledge. As in spatial remapping experiments, many hippocampal neurons responded differently in different configurations – here tasks rather than spatial environments. In contrast, prefrontal representations were more general and reflected different stages of the trial irrespective of the current physical configuration. Population analyses showed that although the structure of each task was represented strongly in both regions, different hippocampal neuronal assemblies participated in each task’s representation. In contrast, neuronal patterns in PFC generalised between different configurations. | ||