Rodent Neural Activity Has a Geometric Structure

TheAlexKnapp writes: In a recent paper (abstract), a team used techniques from computational topology to look at the neural activity in the rat hippocampus as it solved a maze. Mathematician Kevin Knudson explains the findings: "This is the first time geometric structure has been found intrinsically in neural data. Certainly such a structure is to be expected since the rat's place cells keep track of the geometry of the environment, but this result is confirmation that it can be detected using only the pattern of correlations among the neurons. And it suggests that such geometric structure is a property of the underlying place cell network and not a result of the spatial structure of the input cells."

Which kind of rodents?

[nospam007]

Rodents Of Unusual Size? (Rous)

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[avgjoe62]

I don't believe they exist.

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[PolygamousRanchKid]

Rodents Of Unusual Size? (Rous)

Also known as lawyers.

It would be interesting to drop a few lawyers in a maze, and take a peak at their hippocampi . . .

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[Chris Mattern]

Given that we're talking about geometric structures, maybe they're rodents of unusual shape...

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[FreeUser]

Given that we're talking about geometric structures, maybe they're rodents of unusual shape...

The many angled ones. They live at the bottom of the Mandelbrot set. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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[roman_mir]

I read TFA and the way I understand it is that neurons in the hippocampus connect with each other in a way that resembles or projects a map of the environment into the connected structure. So basically a picture or map of the environment is formed in the brain. A mouse is released into a maze, the maze is a geometrical structure that mouse follows to try and escape. As the mouse follows the structure the picture of the maze is mapped into the brain and stays there for some time (unknown?) The mouse know

Re: Explain this please:

[Anonymous Coward]

The rats brain cells mimic the features of a scene in structure directly rather than some other methods, like some burst of activity without any structure, which is what would be expected under older neurology knowledge.
But the more we look at how the brain is structured (especially just the past few years), the more we realize how wrong we were. The brains layout is highly structured and would make any sysadmins network layout look like a childs Lego construction.
That recent-ish deep scan of neuron struct

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[raftpeople]

"Place" cells track when the animal is in a specific place (relative to past experience and environment), "Grid" cells are physically arranged in a grid (approx equidistant from each other) and fire according to animals location within the current environment (meaning if it's approx in the center of the room, then the approx center cell is firing, if moving north then the sequence of firing cells follows that same path, like an internal grid/map).

Proof of God's design!

[AndyKron]

Proof of God's design! How could that structure just evolve from random mutations? If you saw a geometric pattern in the sand by the beach you would know it was designed by someone. If you saw a Boeing 747 you would know it wasn't made by a tornado in a scrap yard. Checkmate atheist evolutionist, neo-Darwinist liberal Nazi fascists with slight leanings toward Maoism! /s

I got a job for you

[future assassin]

it pays good and it also involves 72 virgins.

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[I4ko]

this sounds about right

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[umafuckit]

You laugh, but I reckon the best argument against the bullshit is just to teach and show them how a fertilized egg develops into an organism. This is the same change in complexity that you see over evolutionary time: where single celled organisms eventually turned into amazing macroscopic things like ducks, trees, and elephants. However, with development you can watch the changes happen in real time and the final result is often obtained in a matter of weeks. Best of all, we're learning a heck of a lot abou

Grid Cells

[LionKimbro]

I thought we already knew that. Grid Cells. [wikipedia.org] I first learned about them in a 2007 Scientific American Mind issue. [scientificamerican.com]

I think the new thing in the article is this particular way of searching for their signature, or something.

A rat hippocampus ran a maze?

[idontgno]

Pray tell, where was the rest of the rat?

Surgically extracting a portion of a brain, giving it senses and mobility, and teaching it to navigate a maze is much more impressive than just discovering that its neural activation is symmetrical.

Let me guess...

[hyades1]

The structure resembled a rat trap-ezoid.