‘Speed cells’ found in rats’ brains
Specialized nerve cells fire faster when feet are fleet
From a saunter to a sprint, specialized brain cells keep track of a rat’s swiftness, scientists report July 15 in Nature. These “speed cells” may be a missing piece in understanding how animals and people navigate the world, says neuroscientist Michael Hausser of University College London.
Scientists have previously uncovered cadres of brain cells that help an animal constantly calculate its location in space, work that led to Nobel Prizes last year (SN Online: 10/6/14). But without information about how fast an animal moves, that calculation was incomplete. “With this discovery, we now have all of the cellular ingredients we need” to explain how internal maps are drawn, Hausser says.