# Spatial exploration and navigation in the primate hippocampus

> **NIH NIH RF1** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2020 · $2,028,706

## Abstract

Project Summary.
Human and nonhuman primates are highly visual animals that are predominantly active during the daylight hours.
Yet our understanding of the neural mechanisms supporting spatial navigation is largely based on studies of
nocturnal, burrowing rodents with poor vision. Indeed, studies of human and nonhuman primates have already
demonstrated that spatial positions can be encoded in the hippocampus exclusively by visual inspection of a
scene (i.e. spatial-view cells). At the same time, primate hippocampus also comprises populations of neurons
that encode self-position in a scene during locomotion (i.e. place cells). Ultimately, primate representations of
space must integrate these parallel threads of spatial information, but precisely how this occurs within the primate
hippocampus is entirely unknown. Here we propose to address this fundamental question by leveraging several
conceptual, technical and computational innovations to examine the neural basis of spatial representations in
the hippocampus of marmoset monkeys. Aim 1 complements our previous work demonstrating canonical place
cells in marmoset hippocampus during free-navigation to characterize whether neurons in this neural structure
can also encode space through visual exploration of a scene. Aim 2 seeks to systematically characterize
behavioral strategies in marmosets when searching for food in naturalistic 3-dimensional `forest' environments.
Specifically, we will test how visual exploration and physical navigation of the landscape complement each other
in marmoset spatial behavior. Experiments in Aim 3 build on these results to record the activity of hippocampal
neurons of freely-moving marmosets in the same 3D naturalistic environments. By integrating head-mounted,
wireless eye-tracking technology and video tracking of the animals position in space, we will explicate the role
of different primate hippocampal subfields for exploration and navigation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10053557
- **Project number:** 1RF1NS118457-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** CORY T MILLER
- **Activity code:** RF1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $2,028,706
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10053557

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10053557, Spatial exploration and navigation in the primate hippocampus (1RF1NS118457-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10053557. Licensed CC0.

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