Place, space and memory cells

SummarySelf-localization and navigation are critical functions for the survival of mobile animals. By processing sensory information such as landmarks and environmental features, as well as keeping track of the path they have taken, animals are able to remain oriented as they explore the world, learning what resources are where and planning how to reach them. This ancient capacity for self-orientation has, through evolution, become intimately entwined with the ability to remember the events of daily life — an ability known as episodic memory. Spatial and episodic memory involve the interaction of many cognitive faculties and brain circuits, and so are fascinating subjects for study that reveal much about how the brain works

Taphonomy of holocenic vertebrates from Cueva Salamanca 1 site in the Argentinean Salt Puna

Se presentan los resultados del análisis tafonómico de restos de vertebrados procedentes del sitio arqueológico Cueva Salamanca 1 (CS1), situado en Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca, a 3665 msnm, dentro de la Puna Salada argentina. Este sitio contiene ocupaciones de cazadores-recolectores con dataciones del Holoceno Medio. Se trabajó con una muestra de especímenes identificables (n=277) y una de especímenes no identificables (n=514) de los diferentes estratos del sitio. La conservación de los materiales analizados es buena y no se observaron sesgos tafonómicos significativos. En general, predominaron los procesos naturales intra-sitio, como la acción de humedad, por sobre procesos atmosféricos como la meteorización, aunque en ningún caso implicaron daños sustanciales. La alta frecuencia de trazas antrópicas en relación con la baja incidencia de las de carnívoros sugiere que los humanos fueron el principal agente de acumulación. . La información obtenida se comparó con la de otros sitios arqueológicos, y con los datos paleoecológicos y paleoambientales disponibles para la región.This paper presents the taphonomic analyses of the archaeofaunal assemblage of Cueva Salamanca 1(CS1) site in the Argentinean Salt Puna, Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca located at 3665 masl. This site contains hunter-gatherer occupations dating to the mid-Holocene. A sample of identified (n=277) and unidentified specimens (n=514) from different stratigraphic levelsfrom the site is examined. The preservation of the osteological specimens is good and does not reveal any significant taphonomic biases. In general, natural intra-site processes such as humidity predominated over atmospheric processes like weathering, although they did not substantially damage the assemblage. The high frequency of anthropic marks and the low frequency of carnivore marks at this site suggest that humans were the main accumulation agent. The information obtained was compared to that of other archaeological sites as well as with paleoecological and paleoenvironmental information available from the study area.Fil: Marozzi, Antonela Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto de Antropología de Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades. Museo de Antropologia; ArgentinaFil: Mondini, Nora Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto de Antropología de Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades. Museo de Antropologia; ArgentinaFil: Pintar, Elizabeth. Austin Community College; Estados Unido

Human-animal interactions in the salt puna during the middle holocene: the case of Cueva Salamanca 1, Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca

Se presentan aquí los análisis zooarqueológicos realizados en el registro óseo del sitio arqueológico Cueva Salamanca 1, ubicado en Antofagasta de la Sierra, en la Puna Catamarca, a 3.665 msnm. El sitio presenta la mayor parte de las ocupaciones entre ca. 8100 y 7400 años AP y otras más esporádicas hasta el 4500 AP en la capa 2, en la que se centran los análisis, además de otras posteriores más puntuales. Los resultados sugieren una explotación intensiva de camélidos, especialmente de grupos familiares. Ésta abarcó tanto a vicuñas como a guanacos, que se presentan en una proporción relativamente alta. La explotación de estos camélidos incluyó el procesamiento para la extracción de nutrientes extra- e intra-óseos, así como otros usos. El registro arqueofaunístico analizado es consistente con los escenarios demográfico y paleoambiental propuestos para la región, mostrando una ocupación más estable de este sector intermedio de la cuenca a comienzos del Holoceno Medio y luego una menos intensiva a medida que recrudecen las condiciones de aridez, acompañada de una estrecha interacción con los diferentes camélidos silvestres.This paper presents the zooarchaeological analysis of the bone record from Cueva Salamanca 1 archaeological site, located in Antofagasta de la Sierra, in the Puna of Catamarca, at 3.665 masl. The site has most occupations between ca. 8100-7400 years BP and other, more sporadic ones up to 4500 BP in layer 2 -on which this analysis is focused-, and a few more intermittent later ones. The results suggest an intensive exploitation of camelids, especially of family groups. It included both vicuñas and guanacos, which are represented in relatively high proportions. The exploitation of these camelids involved the processing for extra- and intra-bone nutrient extraction, as well as other uses. The archaeofaunal record analyzed is consistent with the demographic and paleoclimatic settings proposed for the region, and shows a more stable occupation of this intermediate sector of the basin at the beginning of Middle Holocene, followed by a less intensive one as dry conditions increased, along with a tight interaction with different wild camelids.Fil: Mondini, Nora Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto de Antropología de Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades. Museo de Antropologia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Marozzi, Antonela Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto de Antropología de Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades. Museo de Antropologia; ArgentinaFil: Pintar, Elizabeth L.. Austin Community College; Estados Unido

Purely translational realignment in grid cell firing patterns following nonmetric context change

Grid cells in entorhinal and parahippocampal cortices contribute to a network, centered on the hippocampal place cell system, that constructs a representation of spatial context for use in navigation and memory. In doing so, they use metric cues such as the distance and direction of nearby boundaries to position and orient their firing field arrays (grids). The present study investigated whether they also use purely nonmetric “context” information such as color and odor of the environment. We found that, indeed, purely nonmetric cues—sufficiently salient to cause changes in place cell firing patterns—can regulate grid positioning; they do so independently of orientation, and thus interact with linear but not directional spatial inputs. Grid cells responded homogeneously to context changes. We suggest that the grid and place cell networks receive context information directly and also from each other; the information is used by place cells to compute the final decision of the spatial system about which context the animal is in, and by grid cells to help inform the system about where the animal is within it

Place field repetition and purely local remapping in a multicompartment environment

Hippocampal place cells support spatial memory using sensory information from the environment and self-motion information to localize their firing fields. Currently, there is disagreement about whether CA1 place cells can use pure self-motion information to disambiguate different compartments in environments containing multiple visually identical compartments. Some studies report that place cells can disambiguate different compartments, while others report that they do not. Furthermore, while numerous studies have examined remapping, there has been little examination of remapping in different subregions of a single environment. Is remapping purely local or do place fields in neighboring, unaffected, regions detect the change? We recorded place cells as rats foraged across a 4-compartment environment and report 3 new findings. First, we find that, unlike studies in which rats foraged in 2 compartments, place fields showed a high degree of spatial repetition with a slight degree of rate-based discrimination. Second, this repetition does not diminish with extended experience. Third, remapping was found to be purely local for both geometric change and contextual change. Our results reveal the limited capacity of the path integrator to drive pattern separation in hippocampal representations, and suggest that doorways may play a privileged role in segmenting the neural representation of space

Concrete stories, decomposing fictions: Body parts and body politics in Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad

This essay reads the English translation of Ahmed Saadawi’s novel Frankenstein in Baghdad (2018) to explore the “concrete stories” and “infrastructural narratives” devised by the US military in support of its occupation of Baghdad. By stitching together a city and society littered with composing and decomposing fictions, Saadawi’s novel reveals how biopolitical governance produces, contra the hegemonic US war story of security consolidation and societal stabilization, pervasive insecurity instead. Saadawi’s “decomposing fictions”, as I call them, operate on three homologous terrains: the (de)composition of the city; the (de)composition of the body; and the (de)composition of the narrative itself. Through this three-tired conflation, Saadawi shows how body parts are biopolitical, and how narratives actively and materially reshape human bodies and urban infrastructures. The essay therefore argues that the novel aligns with a critical posthumanist perspective, one that allows for a more rigorous consideration of narrative systems (including fictions) as constitutive of and impactful upon human and non-human bodies and urban infrastructures than other concepts, such as “planned violence”, have so far allowed. By theorizing a more complex relationship between narrative form and the built environment in the contexts of militarized colonial and biopolitical urban governance, the essay shows how Saadawi’s novel not only challenges the “imaginative geographies” of the colonial present, but its material infrastructures as well

Integrative cue conflict resolution in the head direction system

Non peer reviewe