An efficient coding theory for a dynamic trajectory predicts non-uniform allocation of entorhinal grid cells to modules

Noga Mosheiff, Haggai Agmon, Avraham Moriel, Yoram Burak*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex encode the position of an animal in its environment with spatially periodic tuning curves with different periodicities. Recent experiments established that these cells are functionally organized in discrete modules with uniform grid spacing. Here we develop a theory for efficient coding of position, which takes into account the temporal statistics of the animal’s motion. The theory predicts a sharp decrease of module population sizes with grid spacing, in agreement with the trend seen in the experimental data. We identify a simple scheme for readout of the grid cell code by neural circuitry, that can match in accuracy the optimal Bayesian decoder. This readout scheme requires persistence over different timescales, depending on the grid cell module. Thus, we propose that the brain may employ an efficient representation of position which takes advantage of the spatiotemporal statistics of the encoded variable, in similarity to the principles that govern early sensory processing.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere1005597
JournalPLoS Computational Biology
Volume13
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Mosheiff et al.

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