Active pursuit gates egocentric coding in Retrosplenial Cortex

Abstract

Spatial navigation is commonly studied in static environments, but adaptive behavior frequently hinges on tracking moving goals in real time. Active pursuit exemplifies this challenge: it is an inherently egocentric spatial behavior requiring continuous localization of a moving target, yet the neural coding schemes supporting it remain poorly understood. We therefore performed Neuropixels recordings in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), a hub for egocentric-to-allocentric reference frame transformations, during naturalistic bait-chasing. We identified head-centered target-encoding neurons that were functionally distinct from cells encoding environmental boundaries or static objects. Whereas egocentric boundary encoding was task-invariant, target-coding cells were specific to chasing and exhibited task-dependent retuning, characterized by enhanced ego-centric representation and reduced allocentric head-direction signaling during pursuit. Together, these findings demonstrate that classical egocentric and allocentric codes coexist with novel target tuning in the RSC, where target-coding neurons dynamically reweight their reference frames according to behavioral demands during pursuit.