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Spatial memory is what allows us to keep track of our location in space by making mental maps of each environment. Let's consider what happens in the brain during the process of forming these internal maps.
Connections, called synapses, between certain neurons strengthen or weaken–a process known as synaptic plasticity. The strength, or weight, of a synapse controls how much one neuron can affect another. Synaptic plasticity is necessary for memory formation [link] .
While many neurons are involved with spatial memory, our focus is upon neurons in the hippocampus called place cells [link] . Place cells have a unique firing pattern. When an environment becomes familiar, each place cell becomes associated with one area of the environment. In other words, after repeated exposure to one environment, a place cell will come to spike in only one area of the environment, which is called that cell's place field [link] . See [link] .
Due to place cells' characteristic firing pattern where a cell has a single place field in each environment, it is easy to test if a rat recognizes the environment they have been placed in by examining place cell activity.
Our research on place cells is based off of the Double Rotation Experiment (DRE) conducted by our collaborator Dr. Knierim [link] .
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