Ledergerber, Debora, Claudia Battistin, Jan Sigurd Blackstad, Richard J. Gardner, Menno P. Witter, May-Britt Moser, Yasser Roudi, and Edvard I. Moser. “Task-dependent mixed selectivity in the subiculum.” Cell Report, Volume 35, Issue 8, 25 May 2021, 109175. 

Highlights
• CA1 and subiculum neurons respond conjunctively to position, head direction, and speed

• The degree of conjunctive coding (“mixed selectivity”) is stronger in the subiculum

• Mixed selectivity is stronger during goal-directed navigation than in free foraging

• Decoding of each navigational covariate is more accurate with mixed selectivity

Summary
“CA1 and subiculum (SUB) connect the hippocampus to numerous output regions. Cells in both areas have place-specific firing fields, although they are more dispersed in SUB. Weak responses to head direction and running speed have been reported in both regions. However, how such information is encoded in CA1 and SUB and the resulting impact on downstream targets are poorly understood. Here, we estimate the tuning of simultaneously recorded CA1 and SUB cells to position, head direction, and speed. Individual neurons respond conjunctively to these covariates in both regions, but the degree of mixed representation is stronger in SUB, and more so during goal-directed spatial navigation than free foraging. Each navigational variable could be decoded with higher precision, from a similar number of neurons, in SUB than CA1. The findings point to a possible contribution of mixed-selective coding in SUB to efficient transmission of hippocampal representations to widespread brain regions.”

Ledergerber, Debora, Claudia Battistin, Jan Sigurd Blackstad, Richard J. Gardner, Menno P. Witter, May-Britt Moser, Yasser Roudi, and Edvard I. Moser. “Task-dependent mixed selectivity in the subiculum.” Cell Report, Volume 35, Issue 8, 25 May 2021, 109175.