Flexible goal learning involves coordinated population activity in dCA1 and medial orbitofrontal cortex

PLoS Biol. 2026 May 29;24(5):e3003824. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003824. eCollection 2026 May.

ABSTRACT

Flexible goal‑directed navigation requires integrating changing goal information with a stable spatial map, yet how cortico-hippocampal circuits accomplish this remains unclear. We simultaneously recorded medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) and dorsal CA1 (dCA1) while rats learned daily changing goal locations on a cheeseboard maze. Rats rapidly learned new goal locations and retained memory for them in the post‑probe session. Both regions contained goal‑related neuronal representations, but their profiles differed: dCA1 showed stronger spatial specificity, whereas mOFC showed more prominent learning‑related updating of goal‑related activity. Combining dCA1 and mOFC activity improved decoding of behavioral stage and learning block relative to either region alone, consistent with complementary contributions to ongoing behavior and learning state. Across learning, these population‑level differences were accompanied by stronger theta‑range synchronization and theta-gamma coupling during navigation than during goal periods. A recurrent network model with dynamic synaptic efficacy captured qualitative features of efficient acquisition and flexible goal updating, providing a candidate computational framework for how learning‑related temporal coordination could contribute to adaptive navigation.

PMID:42213668 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003824