[image: VVTNS.png] https://www.wwtns.online <https://streaklinks.com/A9c7PbbpKY7PxB6PaAJWGD3-/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wwtns.onl...> - on twitter: wwtns@TheoreticalWide You are cordially invited to the lecture Nischal Mainali ELSC, The Hebrew University Mathematical regularities of irregular hippocampus place codes The lecture will be held on zoom on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at *11:00 am EDT * To receive the link: https://www.wwtns.online/register-page *Abstract: *Measurements from hippocampal place cells in small enclosures have led classical view of highly stereotyped neural tuning functions with smooth, unimodal tuning fields that uniformly tile the environment. However, recent experiments conducted in large spaces across multiple species have revealed a much more irregular neural code than suggested by the classical view. Indeed, place cells in large environments typically fire in multiple locations, and the multiple firing fields of individual cells, as well as those of the entire population, vary considerably in size and shape. We recently showed that a simple mathematical model, wherein firing fields are generated by thresholding realizations of a random Gaussian process, accounts for the statistical properties of place fields in precise quantitative detail. This model captures the observed statistics of field sizes and positions and generates new quantitative predictions on field shapes and topologies. Moreover, these statistics are universal across species, but sensitive to the size and dimensionality of the environment. We quantitatively verified these predictions using multiple recent datasets from bats and rodents in one, two, and three dimensions, across both small and large environments. Collectively, these findings imply that common mechanism underlie the diverse statistical features observed in different experiments and suggest that synaptic projections to CA1 are predominantly random. *About VVTNS : Launched as the World Wide Theoretical Neuroscience Seminar (WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van Vreeswijk in Memoriam (April 20, 2022), Speakers have the occasion to talk about theoretical aspects of their work which cannot be discussed in a setting where the majority of the audience consists of experimentalists. The seminars, **held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET,** are 45-50 min long followed by a discussion. The talks are recorded with authorization of the speaker and are available to everybody on our YouTube channel.* ᐧ