Tiling of large-scaled environments by grid cells requires experience

Abstract

Grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex are widely believed to provide a universal spatial metric supporting vector-based navigation irrespective of the spatial scale of an environment. However, using single unit recordings in freely behaving mice, we demonstrate that spatial periodicity in grid cell firing is substantially disrupted when transitioning from a small to a large-scale arena when the scale ratio is larger than the scale ratio of successive grid modules. Remarkably, grid patterns reemerge with experience in the large-scale arena, suggesting that grid cells can learn to represent large-scale spaces with experience. SummaryScaling of grid maps is limited by the scale ratio of successive grid modules. Grid maps cannot be sustained in novel large-scaled environments. The recovery of the grid map requires multi-day experience.