Calcium activity of retrosplenial cortex during place and object recognition in mice

The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) plays a key role in spatial navigation and contextual encoding. It was also shown that RSC is activated in presence of landmark-like objects and during object recognition task. However, the essence of RSC activity during place and object exploration remains unclear. Here we utilized the optic-fiber photometry calcium imaging to record the RSC activity during exploratory behavior in novel object and novel place recognition tasks in mice. We showed that object exploration led to decrease in RSC calcium activity independently of behavioral task. Moreover, another form of exploratory behavior - rearing, was now accompanied by such decrease in RSC activity. Altogether, we showed the specific change in RSC activation during object exploration in mice.