# Parietal cortex networks for sensorimotor processing during navigation

> **NIH NIH R01** · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · 2021 · $542,312

## Abstract

Project Summary
Decision-making is an essential component of spatial navigation as animals convert environmental cues and
internal signals into locomotor actions to reach goal locations. In many experimental paradigms, the neural
mechanisms for navigation and decision-making have been studied separately, leaving open important questions
about how these processes are linked. Findings from our previous grant period, along with recent work in the
field, indicate that the dorsal, posterior cortex – visual, parietal, and retrosplenial cortices – participate in key
computations for navigation-based decision-making. Here we propose to test working models of how these areas
and their interactions contribute during navigation-based decision tasks. We will develop a range of new tools
including: behavioral tasks and analyses for navigation-based decision-making in virtual reality environments,
calcium imaging approaches to record activity in neuronal populations in multiple areas at cellular resolution over
weeks, and computational approaches to understand the encoding of behavioral and task features in single
neurons and large populations. In a first aim, we will test hypotheses about how visual, parietal, and retrosplenial
cortices make distinct contributions to navigation-based decision tasks. We will use a combination of behavioral
modeling, optogenetic perturbations, and calcium imaging. In a second aim, we will analyze the information
transmitted between visual, parietal, and retrosplenial cortices on a moment-by-moment basis during navigation
decisions. We will image activity in multiple cortical regions simultaneously and analyze information flow in
conjunction with retrograde labeling approaches. In a third aim, we will address how these representations and
inter-area interactions develop during learning of navigation- and decision-related associations. We will use
methods to track the activity of the same neurons, in multiple cortical regions, daily over weeks as mice learn
phases of navigation-based decision tasks. Together, this work will advance our understanding of how cortical
regions and their interactions mediate the planning and choice computations essential for effective decision-
making during spatial navigation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10123014
- **Project number:** 5R01NS089521-07
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
- **Principal Investigator:** Christopher D Harvey
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $542,312
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2015-07-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10123014

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10123014, Parietal cortex networks for sensorimotor processing during navigation (5R01NS089521-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10123014. Licensed CC0.

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