Prefrontal and hippocampal contributions to goal coding during navigation. (360G-Wellcome-081132_Z_06_Z)

Keeping track of goals is vitally important for survival, particularly if the goals are locations in the world where we can find food or shelter. In order to navigate to these goals we need to know where we are and where the goals are. Whereas considerable evidence suggests that the hippocampus provides a signal for our current location, the neural coding of goal-relevant information is much less certain. Recent evidence suggests that the medial prefrontal cortex may represent goal locations, bu t how it interacts with the hippocampus to achieve this remains an open question. Moreover, the mechanism by which goals are represented in different environmental contexts has not been explored. The proposed research will use single neuron recording, reversible brain inactivation and behaviour in rats to explore how hippocampal and prefrontal regions interact in producing spatially guided behaviour. Different spatial tasks will be used to assess how the medial prefrontal cells signal informatio n about goal locations, allow the animal to switch between navigation strategies and provide a feedback signal to the hippocampus about future goals. The results will enhance our understanding of how the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex contribute individually, and through functional interactions, to the representation of goal-related information.