Title
Calibration of the head direction network: a role for symmetric angular head velocity cells.
Abstract
Continuous attractor networks require calibration. Computational models of the head direction (HD) system of the rat usually assume that the connections that maintain HD neuron activity are pre-wired and static. Ongoing activity in these models relies on precise continuous attractor dynamics. It is currently unknown how such connections could be so precisely wired, and how accurate calibration is maintained in the face of ongoing noise and perturbation. Our adaptive attractor model of the HD system that uses symmetric angular head velocity (AHV) cells as a training signal shows that the HD system can learn to support stable firing patterns from poorly-performing, unstable starting conditions. The proposed calibration mechanism suggests a requirement for symmetric AHV cells, the existence of which has previously been unexplained, and predicts that symmetric and asymmetric AHV cells should be distinctly different (in morphology, synaptic targets and/or methods of action on postsynaptic HD cells) due to their distinctly different functions.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1007/s10827-010-0234-7
Journal of Computational Neuroscience
Keywords
Field
DocType
Head direction,Attractor,Calibration,Angular head velocity,Symmetric cells
Optics,Calibration,Physics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
28
3
1573-6873
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.42
1
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Peter Stratton192.82
Gordon Wyeth272756.16
Janet Wiles310520.69