# The Emergence, Persistence and Plasticity of Neural Codes for Self-Selected Goal-Directed Navigation

> **NIH NIH RF1** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2020 · $1,440,838

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Goal-directed navigation often occurs in complex, large environments where the same goal can be reached
from different starting point and through different routes which are often self-selected. The hippocampus is
believed to play a central role in navigation yet it remains poorly understood how it supports the planning and
execution of naturally emerging navigation patterns during goal-directed behaviors. The Egyptian fruit bat is a
powerful model for bridging this gap due to specialization for spatial navigation and in particular, its natural
desire to converge onto self-selected, stereotyped and highly structured navigation patterns. Here, we leverage
the bat natural behavior and significantly extend the arsenal of tools and approaches to study how the
hippocampus contributes to the planning, emergence and sustainment the goal-directed, structured navigation
behavior. To do so, we develop novel fully automated environments aimed at engaging the bats in self-paced
and self-selected, natural navigation under closely monitored laboratory conditions. In doing so, we find that
the bats readily engage in goal directed foraging behavior which resembles that observed in the natural setting.
To study the neural dynamics, computations and involvement of the hippocampus in this behavior we integrate
a wide range of wireless neuro-technologies, many of which are entirely novel for the bat model system. These
include, wireless electrophysiology, wireless cellular resolution calcium imaging and wireless optogenetics in
freely flying bats. Our preliminary results provide a detailed account of the bat's navigational strategies during
goal-directed behavior and are beginning to reveal the neural computations in the hippocampal formation that
could facilitate this function. These includes functionally discrete set of neurons that are participating during
discrete stages of the foraging behavior including, planning, execution and evaluation of goal-directed
navigation as well as neuronal sequences that are specific to distinct navigational routes. Combined, we marry
the development of the controlled, yet ethologically-relevant, behavioral setup with a wide range of cutting-
edge neurophysiological methods to thoroughly examine the role and computations in the bat hippocampus
that can subserve that bat's natural ability for structured goal-directed navigation behavior. In doing so, this
research aims to provide a new model the hippocampal neural computations that can support self-selected and
complex goal-directed navigation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10053126
- **Project number:** 1RF1NS118422-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Michael Moshe Yartsev
- **Activity code:** RF1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $1,440,838
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10053126

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10053126, The Emergence, Persistence and Plasticity of Neural Codes for Self-Selected Goal-Directed Navigation (1RF1NS118422-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10053126. Licensed CC0.

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