Modeling Grid Cell Distortions with a Grid Cell Calibration Mechanism

Abstract

The medial entorhinal cortex of rodents is known to contain grid cells that exhibit precise periodic firing patterns based on the animal’s position, resulting in a distinct hexagonal pattern in space. These cells have been extensively studied due to their potential to unveil the navigational computations that occur within the mammalian brain and interesting phenomena such as so-called grid cell distortions have been observed. Previous neuronal models of grid cells assumed their firing fields were independent of environmental boundaries. However, more recent research has revealed that the grid pattern is, in fact, dependent on the environment’s boundaries. When rodents are placed in nonsquare cages, the hexagonal pattern tends to become disrupted and adopts different shapes. We believe that these grid cell distortions can provide insights into the underlying neural circuitry involved in grid cell firing. To this end, a calibration circuit for grid cells is proposed. Our simulations demonstrate that this circuit is capable of reproducing grid distortions observed in several previous studies. Our model also reproduces distortions in place cells and incorporates experimentally observed distortions of speed cells, which present further opportunities for exploration. It generates several experimentally testable predictions, including an alternative behavioral description of boundary vector cells that predicts behaviors in nonsquare environments different from the current model of boundary vector cells. In summary, our study proposes a calibration circuit that reproduces observed grid distortions and generates experimentally testable predictions, aiming to provide insights into the neural mechanisms governing spatial computations in mammals.