{
  "abstract": "During navigation, animals continually sample their surrounding space and plan routes to distant goals. The brain mechanisms underlying these behaviors and how they coordinate to support memory-guided navigation in open environments are not understood. Using large-scale recordings in rats, we found two distinct types of place cell sequences within theta cycles that encoded trajectories sweeping beyond the animal's location: stereotypic left-right alternating sweeps and learning-dependent goal-directed sweeps. Goal-directed sweeps predicted upcoming trajectories to remembered goal locations, were coordinated with prefrontal cortex activity and preferentially replayed during sharp-wave ripples. We further describe a circuit mechanism in which a subpopulation of CA1 cells encodes egocentric goal direction, combined with reduced feedback inhibition, to generate goal-directed theta sweeps. These results indicate a flexible mechanism to support different behavioral demands during navigation.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA",
    "Cornell University. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior",
    "Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. afr77@cornell.edu"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Wenbo Tang",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4361-6705"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Xiyu Mei"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Ryan E. Harvey",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4622-4494"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Estrella Carbajal-Leon"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Talia Netzer"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Hongyu Chang",
      "orcid": "0009-0001-2710-7081"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Azahara Oliva",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1206-7125"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Antonio Fernández‐Ruiz",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8481-0796"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a76dp7g9qxs5d.bib",
  "cited_by": 30,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41593-026-02364-3",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "a76dp7g9qxs5d",
  "issns": [
    "1097-6256",
    "1546-1726"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02364-3",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Memory and Neural Mechanisms"
    ]
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  "openalex": "W4413739540",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC12407861",
  "pmid": "40909560",
  "published": "2026-07-01",
  "publisher": "Nature Portfolio",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a76dp7g9qxs5d.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:26:53Z",
      "native_id": "W4413739540",
      "source": "openalex",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02364-3"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2805|Memory and Neural Mechanisms",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Goal-directed hippocampal theta sweeps during memory-guided navigation",
  "title_text": "Goal-directed hippocampal theta sweeps during memory-guided navigation",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-09T13:21:12Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a76dp7g9qxs5d",
  "venue": "Nature Neuroscience",
  "versions": []
}