Explaining Grid-Cell Firing - new publication by Monsalve-Mercado and Leibold
A model explains why grid cells—neurons that are part of the brain’s positioning system—fire electrical pulses in hexagonal patterns.
Abstract: Space is represented in the mammalian brain by the activity of hippocampal place cells, as well as in their spike-timing correlations. Here, we propose a theory for how this temporal code is transformed to spatial firing rate patterns via spike-timing-dependent synaptic plasticity. The resulting dynamics of synaptic weights resembles well-known pattern formation models in which a lateral inhibition mechanism gives rise to a Turing instability. We identify parameter regimes in which hexagonal firing patterns develop as they have been found in medial entorhinal cortex.
Find the full publication in Physical Review Letters.
