Navigation preference correlates with the place field assembly distribution.
(A) Spatial distribution of the spikes (colored dots) from the reward loop cells (represented by different colors) recorded from 3 preference group animals and (B) from 3 nonpreference group animals. The straight red line denotes the weighted spatial population vector (SPV) between the southwest (SW) corner at 0° and the northeast (NE) corner at 90°. (C) Spatial distribution from all cells recorded from the same animals from the preference and (D) nonpreference groups, respectively. (E) Weighted SPV (left) for the preference group (n = 10 rats) and the nonpreference group (n = 10 rats), 2-tailed independent t test, t(18) = −6.116, ***p < 0.001; and averaged SPV (right), 2-tailed independent t test, t(18) = −7.283, ***p < 0.001, for reward loop cells. Error bars, mean ± SEM. (F) Weighted SPV (left), 2-tailed independent t test; t(18) = −5.048, ***p < 0.001; and averaged SPV (right), 2-tailed independent t test, t(18) = −5.208, **p = 0.006, for all cells. Error bars, mean ± SEM. (G) Comparison of the weighted SPV (left), n = 10, paired t test; t(9) = 5.043, ***p < 0.001; and averaged SPV (right), n = 10, paired t test; t(9) = 4.331, **p = 0.002 between the reward loop cells and all cells for the preference group. (H) Comparison of the weighted SPV (left), n = 10, paired t test; t(9) = −1.823, p = 0.102; and averaged SPV (right), n = 10, paired t test; t(9) = −1.740, p = 0.116 between the reward loop cells and all cells for the nonpreference group. (I) Correlation between the SW/NE passes ratio and the weighted SPV of the reward loop cells (left), n = 20 rats, Pearson’s r = −0.92, p < 0.001; and all cells (right), n = 20, Pearson’s r = −0.90, p < 0.001. (J) Correlation between the SW/NE passes ratio and the averaged SPV of the reward loop cells (left), n = 20, Pearson’s r = −0.91, p < 0.001; and all cells (right), n = 20, Pearson’s r = −0.75, p < 0.001. Files dataset is available at Figshare public repository in Tsanov 2016 data / Continuous T-maze folder https://figshare.com/s/b86a9a111353ba04bd32 and Tsanov 2017 data / Continuous T-maze CA1 folder https://figshare.com/s/5c5ba9b2811f3d7b7696.