Time as the fourth dimension in the hippocampus.

Experiences of animal and human beings are structured by the continuity of space and time coupled with the uni-directionality of time. In addition to its pivotal position in spatial processing and navigation, the hippocampal system also plays a central, multiform role in several types of temporal processing. These include timing and sequence learning, at scales ranging from meso-scales of seconds to macro-scales of minutes, hours, days and beyond, encompassing the classical functions of short term memory, working memory, long term memory, and episodic memories (comprised of information about when, what, and where).

Merging information in the entorhinal cortex: what can we learn from robotics experiments and modeling?

Place recognition is a complex process involving idiothetic and allothetic information. In mammals, evidence suggests that visual information stemming from the temporal and parietal cortical areas ('what' and 'where' information) is merged at the level of the entorhinal cortex (EC) to build a compact code of a place. Local views extracted from specific feature points can provide information important for view cells (in primates) and place cells (in rodents) even when the environment changes dramatically.

From reflex to planning: Multimodal versatile complex systems in biorobotics.

As models of living beings acting in a real world biorobots undergo an accelerated "philogenic" complexification. The first efficient robots performed simple animal behaviours (e.g.

A test of the time estimation hypothesis of place cell goal-related activity.

Place cells are hippocampal pyramidal neurons that discharge strongly in relation to the rat's location in the environment. We recently reported that many place cells recorded from rats performing place or cue navigation tasks also discharged when they were at the goal location rather than in the primary firing field. Furthermore, subtle differences in discharge timing were found in the two navigation tasks, with activity occurring later in the place task compared to the cue task.