Fig. 1: Coexistence of allocentric and egocentric spatial representations in MEC.

a Nissl staining of tetrode track in the MEC. The red arrowhead indicates electrolytic lesion. Animal number is shown in the top left. Scale bar, 1 mm. b Diagram illustrating allocentric head-direction (HD), egocentric center-bearing (CB) and center-distance (CD). The horizontal line to the right / east wall of the arena acts as a reference orientation for calculating both allocentric head direction and the bearing between the rat’s current head direction and center of the environment. c Two representative examples of center-bearing cells from rat MEC. Left panels, color-coded path trajectory (gray line) with superimposed directional spike locations (color indicates the center-bearing; color bar shows the directional range). Right panels, center-bearing and head-direction tuning curves, with mean vector length (MVL) inset. (i) and (ii) indicator of two example cells, as the same for panels d-f. d Same as c except for representative head-direction cells (color indicates the head direction; color bar shows the directional range). e Representative center-distance cells and their tuning curves, with R² of the center-distance - firing rate relationship inset. f Representative examples of conjunctive center-bearing × head-direction × center-distance cells, with MVL of directional tuning curves and R² of distance tuning curves inset. g Comparison of MVL values for center-bearing cells (left panel) and head-direction cells (right panel) according to head direction and movement direction. h Distribution of preferred firing directions for center-bearing cells (left panel) and head-direction cells (right panel). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.