Neurodynamical Modeling of 3D Spatial Activity Patterns of Head-Direction Cells

XU Shuang; WANG Yihong; XU Xuying; PAN Xiaochuan; WANG Rubin

doi:10.21656/1000-0887.450234

Volume 46 Issue 7

Jul. 2025

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Article Navigation > Applied Mathematics and Mechanics > 2025 > 46(7): 836-854

XU Shuang, WANG Yihong, XU Xuying, PAN Xiaochuan, WANG Rubin. Neurodynamical Modeling of 3D Spatial Activity Patterns of Head-Direction Cells[J]. Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, 2025, 46(7): 836-854. doi: 10.21656/1000-0887.450234

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Neurodynamical Modeling of 3D Spatial Activity Patterns of Head-Direction Cells

doi: 10.21656/1000-0887.450234

School of Mathematics, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, P.R.China

Received Date: 2024-08-16
Rev Recd Date: 2025-06-20

Available Online: 2025-07-30

Publish Date: 2025-07-01

Abstract

Abstract

Head-direction cells are present in several brain regions, including the mammalian medial entorhinal cortex, and respond selectively to specific head directions, and constitute a compass system in the brain. This system can update internal direction representations in a self-organized manner, and can receive inputs from the external environment to calibrate direction encoding. Currently, many computational models for head-direction cells only consider head directions encoding in the horizontal plane. Whereas experiments show that neurons encoding both horizontal azimuth and vertical pitch angles exist in the brains of mammals, there is a lack of computational modeling of their neural mechanisms. A continuous attractor network model was constructed to encode 3D direction features such as azimuth and pitch angles at the same time, realizing both the specific direction preference encoding of 3D-head-direction cells at the single-neuron level and the accurate tracking of head direction changes in 3D space at the population level. The torus topology used in the model, compared with the spherical topology, can more reasonably explain the neuronal tuning data for azimuth recorded by bats. The proposed neurodynamic model reproduces the phenomena encoded by electrophysiological experiments recorded in 3D head directions and gives a mechanistic explanation of the dynamical angles of the activity patterns of head-direction cells in the 3D space.
- spatial navigation,
- neurodynamics,
- head-direction cell,
- continuous attractor network,
- 3D space

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References(50)

References

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