The ontogeny of hippocampal spatial memory is supported by postnatal Cajal-Retzius cells
- 1The Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, NTNU
Abstract
The functional capabilities of the adult hippocampus depend on specialized circuits that are established during development. Cajal-Retzius (CR) cells persist in the hippocampus long after their disappearance from the neocortex and contribute to the postnatal maturation of hippocampal circuits, but how this developmental role shapes adult hippocampal function remains unknown. Here, we selectively ablated CR cells from the postnatal hippocampus and examined the consequences for spatial learning, navigation, and CA1 spatial representations. CR-cell ablated animals learned reward locations and adapted to changing task conditions, but learned more slowly and made more errors. Reinforcement-learning models suggest that these behavioral differences reflect less stable internal representations guiding behavior. Consistent with this, CA1 spatial representations remained present but were more unstable and showed reduced differentiation of reward locations, particularly when task conditions changed. Our findings identify postnatal CR cells as key developmental contributors to the stability of hippocampal spatial representations and the adaptive behavior they support.
Related
- Long-Range Glutamatergic Projections Target Hippocampal Cajal-Retzius Cells Through Atypical Receptor Signaling
- Dendritic cells in atherosclerosis: integrating ontogeny, functional states, spatial organization, and therapeutic implications
- Plasticity degeneracy underlies flexible formation and reconfiguration of spatial representations in hippocampal granule cells
- Hippocampal tangential insertions of high-density silicon probes in head- fixed mice enhance spatial sampling
- Recurrent connectivity shapes spatial coding in hippocampal CA3 subregions
BibTeX
@misc{glaerum2026ontogeny,
title = {{The ontogeny of hippocampal spatial memory is supported by postnatal Cajal-Retzius cells}},
author = {I. L. Glaerum and R. H. F. Salih and S. Sachuriga and Y. Roudi and G. Quattrocolo},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.64898/2026.11.03.763868},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.03.763868v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The ontogeny of hippocampal spatial memory is supported by postnatal Cajal-Retzius cells
AU - I. L. Glaerum
AU - R. H. F. Salih
AU - S. Sachuriga
AU - Y. Roudi
AU - G. Quattrocolo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.11.03.763868
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.03.763868v1
AB - The functional capabilities of the adult hippocampus depend on specialized circuits that are established during development. Cajal-Retzius (CR) cells persist in the hippocampus long after their disappearance from the neocortex and contribute to the postnatal maturation of hippocampal circuits, but how this developmental role shapes adult hippocampal function remains unknown. Here, we selectively ablated CR cells from the postnatal hippocampus and examined the consequences for spatial learning, navigation, and CA1 spatial representations. CR-cell ablated animals learned reward locations and adapted to changing task conditions, but learned more slowly and made more errors. Reinforcement-learning models suggest that these behavioral differences reflect less stable internal representations guiding behavior. Consistent with this, CA1 spatial representations remained present but were more unstable and showed reduced differentiation of reward locations, particularly when task conditions changed. Our findings identify postnatal CR cells as key developmental contributors to the stability of hippocampal spatial representations and the adaptive behavior they support.
ER -