Fig. 1: Identification of object-vector (OV) cells.

a Rate maps for Example Cell 10 from the three trials used to identify it as an OV cell. In the first trial, the environment is empty (‘Empty Box’). In the second trial, a free-standing object made of Duplo bricks is present in the environment (‘Object’). In the third trial, the same object is moved to a new location (‘Moved Object’). Rate maps show colour-coded firing rate in Hz as a function of the animal’s position. White squares mark the object location. Peak firing rate (Hz) is indicated below each map. Scale bar represents 40 cm. The example cell fires in a specific distance and direction away from the object, the defining behaviour of OV cells. b Object-centred rate maps, displaying firing rate (Hz) as a function of the animal’s distance (cm) and orientation (degrees) to the object. The object position is the centre of the map. The maps are from the ‘Empty Box’, ‘Object’ and ‘Moved Object’ trials for the cell shown in panel a. For an OV cell, we expect the maps from the ‘Object’ and ‘Moved Object’ trials to be similar. Scale bar in white, 20 cm. c Shuffling distribution of spatial information content for Example Cell 10 (same cell as in previous panels). The cell’s spike timestamps were randomly shifted along the animal’s trajectory (n = 200 permutations). For each shuffled cell, we calculated the spatial information content, which quantifies how informative the spikes are about the animal’s position. The actual spatial information content of the cell is far above the 99th percentile of the shuffling distribution. Spatial information contents were calculated using data from the ‘Object’ trial. d Shuffling distribution of OV scores for Example Cell 10. After performing shuffling (as in the previous panel) we calculated the OV score for each shuffled cell. The OV score is the Pearson correlation between the object-centred maps shown in panel b from the ‘Object’ and ‘Moved Object’ trials. The actual OV score of the cell exceeds the 99th percentile of the shuffling distribution. e Scatterplot showing the actual spatial information content (bits/spike) of OV cells, compared to the threshold value obtained from each cell’s shuffling distribution. The threshold was the 99th percentile of the shuffling distribution. All data points fall above the diagonal because, by definition, OV cells need to pass the spatial information criterion. The spatial information content was calculated on the ‘Object’ trial (a). f Scatterplot showing the actual OV score of OV cells, compared to the threshold value obtained from each cell’s shuffling distribution. The threshold was the 99th percentile of the shuffling distribution. All data points fall above the diagonal because, by definition, OV cells need to pass the OV score criterion. The OV score is the Pearson correlation between the object-centred maps in (b) from the ‘Object’ and ‘Moved Object’ trials.