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Moving bar of light evokes vectorial spatial selectivity in the immobile rat hippocampus

Visual cortical neurons encode the position and motion direction of specific stimuli retrospectively, without any locomotion or task demand1. Hippocampus, a part of visual system, is hypothesized to require self-motion or cognitive task to generate allocentric spatial selectivity that is scalar, abstract2,3, and prospective4–7. To bridge these seeming disparities, we measured rodent hippocampal selectivity to a moving bar of light in a body-fixed rat. About 70% of dorsal CA1 neurons showed stable activity modulation as a function of the bar’s angular position, independent of behavior and rewards. A third of tuned cells also encoded the direction of revolution. In other experiments, neurons encoded the distance of bar, with preference for approaching motion. Collectively, these demonstrate visually evoked vectorial selectivity (VEVS). Unlike place cells, VEVS was retrospective. Changes in the visual stimulus or its trajectory did not cause remapping but only caused gradual changes. Most VEVS tuned neurons behaved like place cells during spatial exploration and the two selectivity were correlated. Thus, VEVS could form the basic building block of hippocampal activity. When combined with self-motion, reward, or multisensory stimuli8, it can generate the complexity of prospective representations including allocentric space9, time10,11, and episodes12.