英国杜伦大学Colin Lever和英国伦敦大学学院细胞与发育生物学系Thomas J. Wills等研究团队合作取得最新进展。他们描述了海马结构下亚细胞中的矢量跟踪细胞（VTC）。这一研究成果发表在2020年12月21日出版的国际学术期刊《自然-神经科学》杂志上。
他们描述了一种新型的神经元类型，即VTC，当遇到某些条件时，其会生成一个新的矢量场，并在条件去除后数小时内触发该场的“追踪”版本。VTC集中在CA1远端的下丘脑中。与非追踪细胞相比，VTC在距条件更远的距离处发射，并响应于新引入的条件而在优选theta相位中显示出较早的变化，这证明了用于记忆编码的与theta关联的神经基质。VTC提出了一种基于矢量的模型，用于计算代理与多个空间对象之间或不同对象之间的空间关系，而不受那些对象直接感知的约束。
研究人员表示，要在物理或语义空间中成功导航，需要对边界、对象和目标的同心轴（基于地图）矢量的神经表示。诸如路径规划和想象力之类的认知过程需要召回矢量表示形式，但是一直缺乏关于异源矢量的神经元级记忆的证据。
附：英文原文
Title: Vector trace cells in the subiculum of the hippocampal formation
Author: Steven Poulter, Sang Ah Lee, James Dachtler, Thomas J. Wills, Colin Lever
Issue&Volume: 2020-12-21
Abstract: Successfully navigating in physical or semantic space requires a neural representation of allocentric (map-based) vectors to boundaries, objects and goals. Cognitive processes such as path-planning and imagination entail the recall of vector representations, but evidence of neuron-level memory for allocentric vectors has been lacking. Here, we describe a novel neuron type, vector trace cell (VTC), whose firing generates a new vector field when a cue is encountered and a ‘trace’ version of that field for hours after cue removal. VTCs are concentrated in subiculum, distal to CA1. Compared to non-trace cells, VTCs fire at further distances from cues and exhibit earlier-going shifts in preferred theta phase in response to newly introduced cues, which demonstrates a theta-linked neural substrate for memory encoding. VTCs suggest a vector-based model of computing spatial relationships between an agent and multiple spatial objects, or between different objects, freed from the constraints of direct perception of those objects.
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-00761-w
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-00761-w
Nature Neuroscience：《自然—神经科学》，创刊于1998年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：28.771
官方网址：https://www.nature.com/neuro/
投稿链接：https://mts-nn.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex
本期文章：《自然—神经科学》：Online/在线发表
