Splitter cells: hippocampal place cells whose firing is modulated by where the animal is going or where it has been

Citation

Dudchenko P & Wood E (2014) Splitter cells: hippocampal place cells whose firing is modulated by where the animal is going or where it has been. In: Knierim JJ & Derdikman D (eds.) Space, Time and Memory in the Hippocampal Formation. Vienna: Springer-Verlag, pp. 253-272. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1292-2

Abstract
When a rat runs through a given location on its way to or from different destinations, place fields encoding this location often fire at a higher rate for one of the two (or more) journey types, compared to the others. This unequal “splitting” of a place field suggests that the hippocampus differentiates between common segments of routes leading to or from different places. In the current chapter, we review the initial demonstrations of this pattern of place cell firing and consider the contribution of different task demands and discriminative cues. We conclude by considering the development of splitters and what is known about their essential circuitry.

Keywords
firing rate; place cells; place fields; entorhinal cortex; alternation task