Nature Communications (Apr 2020)

A gravity-based three-dimensional compass in the mouse brain

  • Dora E. Angelaki,
  • Julia Ng,
  • Amada M. Abrego,
  • Henry X. Cham,
  • Eftihia K. Asprodini,
  • J. David Dickman,
  • Jean Laurens

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15566-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Head direction neurons constitute the brain’s compass, and are classically known to indicate head orientation in the horizontal plane. Here, the authors show that head direction neurons form a three-dimensional compass that can also indicate head tilt, and anchors to gravity.