The ability to plan for future events is one of the defining features of human intelligence. Whether non-human animals can plan for specific future situations remains contentious: despite a sustained research effort over the last two decades, there is still no consensus on this question. Here, we show that New Caledonian crows can use tools to plan for specific future events. Crows learned a temporal sequence where they were (a) shown a baited apparatus, (b) 5 min later given a choice of five objects and (c) 10 min later given access to the apparatus. At test, these crows were presented with one of two tool-apparatus combinations. For each combination, the crows chose the right tool for the right future task, while ignoring previously useful tools and a low-value food item. This study establishes that planning for specific future tool use can evolve via convergent evolution, given that corvids and humans shared a common ancestor over 300 million years ago, and offers a route to mapping the planning capacities of animals.

• Klíčová slova
• New Caledonian crows, comparative cognition, future reward, planning, spoon test,
• MeSH
• chování při používání nástrojů * MeSH
• vrány * MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Nová Kaledonie MeSH

Hippocampal place cells represent different environments with distinct neural activity patterns. Following an abrupt switch between two familiar configurations of visual cues defining two environments, the hippocampal neural activity pattern switches almost immediately to the corresponding representation. Surprisingly, during a transient period following the switch to the new environment, occasional fast transitions between the two activity patterns (flickering) were observed (Jezek, Henriksen, Treves, Moser, & Moser, ). Here we show that an attractor neural network model of place cells with connections endowed with short-term synaptic plasticity can account for this phenomenon. A memory trace of the recent history of network activity is maintained in the state of the synapses, allowing the network to temporarily reactivate the representation of the previous environment in the absence of the corresponding sensory cues. The model predicts that the number of flickering events depends on the amplitude of the ongoing theta rhythm and the distance between the current position of the animal and its position at the time of cue switching. We test these predictions with new analysis of experimental data. These results suggest a potential role of short-term synaptic plasticity in recruiting the activity of different cell assemblies and in shaping hippocampal activity of behaving animals.

• Klíčová slova
• CA3, attractor neural network, hippocampus, memory, place cell, recurrent neural network, teleportation, theta,
• MeSH
• akční potenciály fyziologie   MeSH
• časové faktory MeSH
• elektroencefalografie MeSH
• hipokampus cytologie   MeSH
• krysa rodu Rattus MeSH
• mapování mozku MeSH
• modely neurologické * MeSH
• nervová síť fyziologie   MeSH
• neurony fyziologie   MeSH
• neuroplasticita fyziologie   MeSH
• podněty MeSH
• prostorová paměť fyziologie   MeSH
• světelná stimulace MeSH
• theta rytmus EEG fyziologie   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• krysa rodu Rattus MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH