Auditory spatial discriminatory and mnemonic neurons in rat posterior parietal cortex

The present study was designed to investigate whether the rat posterior parietal cortex is involved in the perception and the representation of the auditory space. We recorded single neural activity in the posterior parietal cortex of rats that performed a directional delayed nonmatching-to-sample task. In the task, cue tones were presented in one of six speakers that were placed symmetrically around the rats. "Familiar tones" were those repeatedly used in the course of behavioral training. Novel tones were presented only during the unit recording time and less frequently used (e.g., only once in alternate weeks). The responses of the posterior parietal cortex neurons were typically tested with familiar cue tones while the rats were situated in a particular geomagnetic orientation. The same cells were further tested while the rats were reoriented by 180 degrees, or by novel cue tones. As the task included a delay period, in which the cue tone was removed, the rats had to maintain the directional information of the cue tones during this period to maximize the reward rates. A well-trained rat could perform the task with 85% success. We found two major types of neurons intermixed in the rat posterior parietal cortex. One type (n = 14) mainly discriminated the direction of the cue tones, whereas the other (n = 36) carried a mnemonic value of the cue tones while the tones were removed. The former responded only during the cue tone period (discriminatory neurons), whereas the latter responded during the cue tone period and the delay period (mnemonic neurons). These cells also exhibited broad directional tuning. The results agreed with previous studies, suggesting that a population coding scheme exists in the posterior parietal cortex. When the cells were tested with novel tones or when the rats were rotated through 180 degrees, the vast majority of the cells exhibited a directional tuning similar to those under the control conditions. Three quarters (18/24) of the cells that exhibited a mnemonic characteristic persisted in their directional preference when the rat's orientation was changed (12/17 neurons) or when an unfamiliar auditory stimulus was used (6/7 neurons). Half of the discriminatory neurons (4/8 neurons) persisted in their directional preference. These results, consistent with previous behavioral studies, suggest an allocentric representation of the auditory processing in this area. Furthermore, when the rat was reoriented or an unfamiliar cue tone was used, both the average and peak directional responses were enhanced in more than half of the mnemonic or discriminatory neurons. These results support the frequency-dependent neocortical gating hypothesis of the entorhinal hippocampal loop.