Boundary cell

Boundary cells were subsequently discovered in several regions of the hippocampal formation: the subiculum, presubiculum and entorhinal cortex.

The hypothetical input cells (BVCs) responded to environmental boundaries at particular distances and allocentric directions from the rat.

For example, neurons classified as "border cells" may include some that fire at short range to any environmental boundary (regardless of direction).

[9] Testing with mice has revealed evidence of neurons located within the dorsomedial striatum that each have consistent activation when the mouse is at a certain distance and angle from nearby boundaries.

Current research suggests that there exists a strong connection between the allocentric and egocentric representations of environments: both the static environmental map and the dynamic positional details are needed for intentional movement.

Firing of a boundary cell recorded in rat subiculum in 1 x 1 metre square-walled box with 50 cm-high walls. A 50 cm-long barrier inserted into box elicits second field along north side of barrier in addition to original field along south wall. Left: Firing rate map, one of 5 colours in locational bin indicates spatially-smoothed firing rate in that bin (autoscaled to firing rate peak, dark blue: 0-20%; light blue: 20-40%; green: 40-60%; yellow: 60-80%; red: 80-100%. The maximum firing rate is 14.2 Hz). Right: path taken by rat is shown in black, locations where spikes were recorded indicated by green squares.