This data set was used during the tutorials of the 2023 i-Bio summer school. It consists in recordings performed in the hippocampus while rats run back and forth on a linear track to get a water reward. Additionally, the animal received an aversive air puff when crossing a certain position along the track and only in one running direction (left to right in this session). The recording session is organized in 5 consecutive conditions: 1) in the "pre-run" condition, the animal was free to evolve on the linear track without receiving air puffs; 2) in the "pre-sleep" condition, the animal was brought to its home cage for sleep; 3) in the "run" condition, the animal was placed back on the track. Ths is the condition where it receives air puffs when crossing a particular position in a specific direction; 4) in the "post-sleep" condition, the animal was moved to its home cage again for another sleep period; 5) in the "post-run" condition, the animal was placed on the track again but received no aversive air-puff this time. Animals were recorded multiple days. Over successive days, the position and the direction for which the animal received an air puff during the "run" condition were changed pseudo-randomly.
The experimental procedure was developed by G. Girardeau, I. Inema and G. Buzsaki (New York University Medical Center) . It was designed to investigate the neural correlates of the association between place and threat, both at the single cell and population levels. Here is a reference paper based on such experiment: G. Girardeau, I. Inema, G. Buzsaki, Reactivations of emotional memory in the hippocampus-amygdala system during sleep (2017). Nature Neuroscience 20(11):1634-1642