Active locomotion predictively rescues head direction attractor dynamics in head-fixed mice
Abstract
Head direction (HD) cells in the anterodorsal thalamic nucleus form the brain’s internal compass, and are often modeled as a ring attractor maintaining azimuth coding by leveraging continuous visual and inertial sensory input. Here, we test how the common experimental preparation of head-fixed animals alters this code. Complete head-fixation that creates vestibular conflict disrupts both unit and population encoding of head direction, while selectively constraining head-on-body movements either in real or virtual reality uniquely impairs HD population activity. More specifically, attractor dynamics are altered in head-restrained male mice during periods of immobility, and a computational model recapitulates this effect by perturbing lateral connectivity among HD neurons. These dynamics recover several hundred milliseconds prior to locomotion onset, suggesting that an efference copy or prediction of a re-afferent signal is necessary to maintain HD network activity during head restraint. More generally, the results indicate that the HD network is a context- and state-dependent predictive estimator, stabilized by forthcoming self-motion signals. The classic ring-attractor models should be revised to integrate context-dependent dynamics with prospective motor signals, offering a more complete account of how the brain’s compass remains stable across both naturalistic and constrained conditions.
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BibTeX
@article{pak2026active,
title = {{Active locomotion predictively rescues head direction attractor dynamics in head-fixed mice}},
author = {Alexandr Pak and Janna Aarse and Heng Wei Zhu and Jean-Paul Noel and Simón Carrillo Segura and André A. Fenton and Dora Angelaki},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-79031-5},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-79031-5},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Active locomotion predictively rescues head direction attractor dynamics in head-fixed mice
AU - Alexandr Pak
AU - Janna Aarse
AU - Heng Wei Zhu
AU - Jean-Paul Noel
AU - Simón Carrillo Segura
AU - André A. Fenton
AU - Dora Angelaki
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/25
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-79031-5
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-79031-5
AB - Head direction (HD) cells in the anterodorsal thalamic nucleus form the brain’s internal compass, and are often modeled as a ring attractor maintaining azimuth coding by leveraging continuous visual and inertial sensory input. Here, we test how the common experimental preparation of head-fixed animals alters this code. Complete head-fixation that creates vestibular conflict disrupts both unit and population encoding of head direction, while selectively constraining head-on-body movements either in real or virtual reality uniquely impairs HD population activity. More specifically, attractor dynamics are altered in head-restrained male mice during periods of immobility, and a computational model recapitulates this effect by perturbing lateral connectivity among HD neurons. These dynamics recover several hundred milliseconds prior to locomotion onset, suggesting that an efference copy or prediction of a re-afferent signal is necessary to maintain HD network activity during head restraint. More generally, the results indicate that the HD network is a context- and state-dependent predictive estimator, stabilized by forthcoming self-motion signals. The classic ring-attractor models should be revised to integrate context-dependent dynamics with prospective motor signals, offering a more complete account of how the brain’s compass remains stable across both naturalistic and constrained conditions.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -