An interesting work from the Benchenane's lab reinforces the idea of the causal role of individual place cells in navigation and spatial memory. The experimental design makes use of live spike detection to associate a positive neural reward (by stimulating the medial forebrain bundle) following the spike of a clearly isolated individual place cell. Following the stimulation protocol either in awake or asleep mice, navigation is strongly biased towards the place field codified by the place cell used to trigger the reward.
Full Article in Nature Neuroscience
