Planning can be defined as action selection that leverages an internal model of the outcomes likely to follow each possible action. Its neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we adapt recent advances from human research for rats, presenting for the first time an animal task that produces many trials of planned behavior per session, making multitrial rodent experimental tools available to study planning. We use part of this toolkit to address a perennially controversial issue in planning: the role of the dorsal hippocampus. Although prospective hippocampal representations have been proposed to support planning, intact planning in animals with damaged hippocampi has been repeatedly observed. Combining formal algorithmic behavioral analysis with muscimol inactivation, we provide causal evidence directly linking dorsal hippocampus with planning behavior. Our results and methods open the door to new and more detailed investigations of the neural mechanisms of planning in the hippocampus and throughout the brain.

中文翻译：

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海马背侧有助于基于模型的计划

可以将计划定义为行动选择，它利用可能遵循每个可能行动的结果内部模型。其神经机制仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们采用人类研究的最新进展来进行大鼠研究，首次提出一项动物任务，该任务每节进行许多计划行为的试验，从而使多试验性啮齿动物实验工具可用于研究计划。我们使用该工具包的一部分来解决计划中一个长期存在争议的问题：海马背侧的作用。尽管已经提出了前瞻性海马代表来支持计划，但是已经反复观察到海马受损的动物的完整计划。将形式上的算法行为分析与muscimol灭活相结合，我们提供了将背侧海马与计划行为直接联系的因果证据。我们的结果和方法为海马和整个大脑计划神经机制的新的和更详细的研究打开了大门。