Data from: Complementary roles of dorsal and ventral hippocampus in the flexible adaptation of goal-directed behavior

The ability to adapt previously learned behaviors is crucial for survival
in dynamically changing environments. The hippocampus has been implicated
in associative learning, but how hippocampus activity along its
septotemporal axis contributes to flexible adaptation is unknown. Using in
vivo Ca2+ recordings and functional inhibition of dorsal CA1 (dCA1) and
ventral CA1 (vCA1) neurons in mice during complementary cognitive
flexibility tasks, we find that dCA1 is engaged and functionally required
during consolidation of a learned contingency both before and after a rule
change, whereas vCA1 is uniquely recruited during, and necessary for,
early adaptation to a new contingency. This vCA1-dependent adaptation
relies on a perseverative error signal, which is encoded in vCA1 and
required for behavior updating. These results highlight a novel division
of labor within the hippocampus, in which vCA1 enables flexible adaptation
when mismatches in expected and actual outcomes are detected, while dCA1
stabilizes newly learned information.