Figure 1.

Rotation-selective neurons in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC)

(A) Cartoon of a head-fixed mouse in an arena with visual cues. The mouse and visual cues can be rotated together or independently while performing two-photon microscopy.

(B) Top-view schematic: The mouse is randomly rotated between three target directions (dashed lines) but only gets a water reward in one direction. The circle represents the arena wall with white cues on a black background.

(C) Block diagram of the sequence of events for a single trial.

(D) (Left) Confocal fluorescence image of RSC coronal brain slice with cortical layers indicated (Thy1-GCaMP6s/ GP4.3 mice). (Right) Top view of cranial window implanted on dorsal (agranular) RSC and centered over the central sinus. Black box shows the typical size and location of an imaging field of view (FOV).

(E) Two-photon image sequence of layer 2/3 neurons during rotation experiment (left) and when de-rotated during postprocessing (right).

(F) Example fluorescence traces (fractional change of fluorescence [DF/F]) of a clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) selective cell. Ticks indicate deconvolved DF/F events. Blue and red bars are CW and CCW rotation trials, respectively. Polar histograms show the DF/F events as a function of direction (the arena wall with visual cues is superimposed).

(G) Logarithmic plot of the fraction of rotation-selective cells at different significance levels (average ± SEM, 1,368 cells, 4 mice, 4 FOVs).

(H) Distribution of rotation-selectivity index for all rotation-selective (p ≤ 0.05) and non-selective cells (average ± SEM).

(I) Average activity of all rotation-selective cells separated in CW and CCW rotations.

(J) Example FOV showing the spatial distribution of CW- (blue) and CCW-selective cells (red), for p ≤ 0.05.