小组在野外对空间神经元进行了电生理研究：小组记录了在一个遥远的海洋岛屿上不受约束地飞行和户外导航的蝙蝠的下垫前的头部方向细胞。这些神经元在整个岛屿的地理范围内稳定地代表了蝙蝠的方向，与月亮和银河系的动态无关。从第一次探索该岛开始，方向调整在几个晚上后稳定下来。这些结果表明，头部定向细胞可以作为一种可学习的、可靠的神经罗盘，用于现实世界的导航——突出了将神经科学带入野外的力量。
研究人员表示，动物和人类依靠它们的导航技能生存。然而，大脑“导航回路”中的空间神经元此前并没有在现实条件下进行过研究。
附：英文原文
Title: Head-direction cells as a neural compass in bats navigating outdoors on a remote oceanic island
Author: Shaked Palgi, Saikat Ray, Shir R. Maimon, Yuval Waserman, Liron Ben-Ari, Tamir Eliav, Avishag Tuval, Chen Cohen, Julius D. Keyyu, Abdalla I. Ali, Henrik Mouritsen, Liora Las, Nachum Ulanovsky
Issue&Volume: 2025-10-16
Abstract: Animals and humans rely on their navigation skills to survive. However, spatial neurons in the brain’s “navigation circuit” had not previously been studied under real-world conditions. We conducted an electrophysiological study of spatial neurons in the wild: We recorded head-direction cells from the presubiculum of bats flying unconstrained and navigating outdoors on a remote oceanic island. These neurons represented the bats’ orientation stably across the island’s entire geographical scale and irrespective of the dynamics of the Moon and the Milky Way. The directional tuning stabilized over several nights from the first exploration of the island. These results imply that head-direction cells can serve as a learned, reliable neural compass for real-world navigation—highlighting the power of taking neuroscience out into the wild.
DOI: adw6202
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw6202