Kavli Affiliate: Jonathan Whitlock
| Authors: Pearl Saldanha, Martin Bjerke, Benjamin Adric Dunn and Jonathan Robert Whitlock
| Summary:
Spatial navigation is commonly studied in static environments, but adaptive behavior frequently hinges on tracking moving goals in real time. Active pursuit exemplifies this challenge, since it is an inherently egocentric spatial behavior requiring continual localization of a moving goal relative to the self; however, the neural coding schemes supporting it are not well understood. We therefore performed Neuropixels recordings in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), a cortical hub for egocentric-to-allocentric spatial transformations, while rats engaged in naturalistic bait-chasing. We identified a subpopulation of cells encoding the location of the moving target relative to the head that were functionally distinct from cells encoding environmental boundaries or stationary objects. Whereas boundary-related tuning remained stable across behavioral contexts, target-coding cells were specific to chasing and shifted tuning dynamically, reducing allocentric head direction while enhancing egocentric features during pursuit. Together, these results show that stable environmental representations coexist with flexible goal-related egocentric coding in the RSC, allowing population activity to adapt to the demands of pursuit.