Task Sims

The task

Run on the wheel until the doors open, choose an arm, and learn the sequence rule from water rewards alone. This is the task my rats run; more on the RatTADStask page and in the replay paper.

How to play

• Laptop: WASD or arrows to move, mouse to turn, Space to hop into the wheel, W to run it, click to lick.
• Phone: touch controls coming soon.

The paper

Hippocampal place-cell sequences depict future paths to remembered goals. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The task

A 2 m by 2 m arena with 36 small wells in the floor, none of them marked. One well is HOME. Drink at HOME and a random well is filled somewhere else; find and drink that one, and HOME fills again. So the rat alternates between searching and returning to a remembered place. HOME moves to a new well each day.

How to play

• Laptop: WASD or arrows to move, mouse to turn, click to lick a well. N starts the next day (HOME moves); K shows where HOME and the filled well are.
• Phone: touch controls coming soon.

The paper

Posterior parietal cortex represents sensory history and mediates its effects on behaviour. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The task

A small chamber with three nose ports. Poke your nose into the centre port and hold it there. You hear a burst of noise, a silent delay of a few seconds, then a second burst. When the go tone sounds, pull out and choose: right if the first sound was louder, left if the second was. Water at the correct port.

How to play

• Laptop: walk up to the port wall and click a port to poke; hold the click on the centre port until the go tone. Right-click a water port to drink. V shows each sound as a ring (size = loudness), in case you play with the sound off.
• Phone: touch controls coming soon. Turn your sound on.

The paper

Critical role of the hippocampus in memory for sequences of events. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

Cups of scented sand, presented one odour at a time (A to E). Then a probe: of two odours, dig in the one that came earlier in the sequence. In the sim, odours show as coloured wisps (“smello-vision”) once you dig.

Fortin, Agster & Eichenbaum · Playable task.

The paper

Internally generated cell assembly sequences in the rat hippocampus. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

A 100 × 120 cm figure-8 maze with a running wheel in the delay area. Run on the wheel, then go up the stem and alternate between the left and right water spouts. Doors open and close automatically.

Pastalkova, Itskov, Amarasingham & Buzsáki · Playable task.

The paper

Hippocampal “time cells”: time versus path integration. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

An elevated figure-8 track with a treadmill in the centre stem. Run on the treadmill for the delay, then alternate left and right for water.

Kraus, Robinson, White, Eichenbaum & Hasselmo · Playable task.

The paper

Dorsal hippocampus contributes to model-based planning. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

An operant box with six nose ports: a first choice leads, with some probability, to one of two second-step ports, and then to reward ports. Nose pokes and drinking work; the trial rules are next.

Miller, Botvinick & Brody · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

Nested sequences of hippocampal assemblies during behavior support subsequent sleep replay. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

The rat rides a model train around a 2.2 × 1.3 m track, sitting still or running in place on a small treadmill on the train. You can ride, switch the treadmill, reverse and change speeds.

Drieu, Todorova & Zugaro · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

Flexible rerouting of hippocampal replay sequences around changing barriers in the absence of global place field remapping. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

A 90 cm box with a 3 × 3 grid of wells and six barriers that move to a new layout each session.

Widloski & Foster · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

A global dopaminergic learning rate enables adaptive foraging across many options. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

A long, narrow arena (2.13 × 0.44 m) with six lick spouts along the walls and a red shelter. You play as a mouse.

Grima, Guo, Narayan, Hermundstad & Dudman · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

Large environments reveal the statistical structure governing hippocampal representations. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

A 48 m winding track filling a large room.

Rich, Liaw & Lee · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

Awake replay of remote experiences in the hippocampus. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

Two W-shaped tracks separated by a barrier, plus a rest box, in a room with a curtain and a bookcase.

Karlsson & Frank · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

Network dynamics underlying the formation of sparse, informative representations in the hippocampus (Karlsson & Frank 2008). Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

A hippocampal network for spatial coding during immobility and sleep (Kay et al. 2016). Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

The single W-shaped track used across many Frank lab studies.

Karlsson & Frank; Singer et al.; Kay et al.; Carr et al. · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

Hippocampal replay of extended experience. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

A 10 m long linear track.

Davidson, Kloosterman & Wilson · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

Assembly responses of hippocampal CA1 place cells predict learned behavior in goal-directed spatial tasks on the radial eight-arm maze. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

A radial maze with eight arms, used for a working-memory task.

Xu, Baracskay, O’Neill & Csicsvari · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.

The paper

Hippocampal replay reflects specific past experiences rather than a plan for subsequent choice. Paper ↗ · PubMed ↗

The setup

An eight-arm maze from the Frank lab, used for a task where the rewarded arm changes.

Gillespie et al. · Explore the setup; the task itself is still to come.