Fig. 5: Impaired pattern separation of distinct multiple linear track experiences after sphere-rearing.
a Experimental design (Day2): sleep and run on 3 linear tracks. b Developmental emergence of place cell re/mapping and pattern separation across 3 tracks. Left: examples of re/mapping in cuboid- and sphere-reared rats. Right: age-related increase in pattern-separation (re/mapping) in P16-P25 cuboid-reared rats (p = 2.3 × 10−72, ANOVA) and its impairment in P25 sphere-reared rats (P25 sphere vs. P16 cuboid: p = 7.2 × 10−19; P25 sphere vs. P17-20 cuboid: p = 0.23; P25 sphere vs. P21-23 cuboid: p = 2.1 × 10−10, P25 sphere vs. P24-25 cuboid: p = 4.6 × 10−17, P25 sphere vs. P25 cuboid: p = 1.8 × 10−16, two-sided rank-sum tests). Data are means ± SEM. N (rats/group x 2 directions/rat for each track): Cuboid: 6 (P16), 10 (P17-20), 12 (P21-23), 10 (P24-25), 8 (P25); Sphere: 10 (P25). c Reduced discriminability between multiple tracks (i.e., increased peak and mean firing-rate correlations) after sphere-rearing (P24-25 cuboid-reared vs. P25 sphere-reared: p = 7.8 × 10−5 and p = 1.8 × 10−13 respectively, two-sided rank-sum tests). d Higher similarity between mapping of different corners/ends (p = 8.1 × 10−6, two-sided rank-sum test, left) and tracks’ middle across the 3 tracks (p = 6.9 × 10−5, two-sided rank-sum test, right) in the sphere-vs. cuboid-reared rats. N (rats/group x 2 directions/rat for each track): (c, d) Cuboid, P24-25 (10); Sphere, P25 (10). ***p < 0.005. ns = not significant. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Cartoons in Fig. 5/Panel a adapted from U. Farooq, G. Dragoi, Emergence of preconfigured and plastic time-compressed sequences in early postnatal development. Science 363, 168–173 (2019). DOI: 10.1126/science.aav0502. Reprinted with permission from AAAS.
