Homing by path integration in a new environment

Siegrist, Claire Anne; Etienne, Ariane S.; Boulens, Valérie; Maurer, Roland; Rowe, Tiffany

doi:10.1006/anbe.2002.2036

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…While PI may underpin a navigator's map, its performance in turn may be influenced by the subject's representation of the current surroundings. This may be the case for rodents (Siegrist et al, 2003) and has clearly been shown for humans. Blindfolded subjects compute the bearing of a landmark using self-motion cues more accurately when they are aware of their environment, or asked to imagine their surroundings, than when PI occurs without any conscious representational support (Rieser, 1999).…”

Section: Pi and The Representation Of Spacesupporting

confidence: 52%

“…This is particularly the case in test conditions in which the animal has to pinpoint its goal on the open arena floor, and possibly explores the test space in search of external cues. In an experimental arena with a peripheral home base, homing is generally more direct, most likely because the animal has learned to follow the planned homing direction to the arena periphery and then to search for the nest entrance along the arena border (Siegrist et al, 2003). Let us emphasize that, for reasons discussed below, PI in itself exerts a functionally important control over navigation only as long as the animal can combine it with learned strategies and/or spatial cues from the familiar environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Path integration in mammals

2004

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ABSTRACT:It is often assumed that navigation implies the use, by animals, of landmarks indicating the location of the goal. However, many animals (including humans) are able to return to the starting point of a journey, or to other goal sites, by relying on self-motion cues only. This process is known as path integration, and it allows an agent to calculate a route without making use of landmarks. We review the current literature on path integration and its interaction with external, location-based cues. Special importance is given to the correlation between observable behavior and the activity pattern of particular neural cell populations that implement the internal representation of space. In mammals, the latter may well be the first high-level cognitive representation to be understood at the neural level.

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Section: Pi and The Representation Of Spacesupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Path integration in mammals

2004

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“…Thus, the structure of the test space greatly facilitated homing by stopping the animals' initial progression at the periphery and guiding them along the arena wall until they found the nest entrance. We assume that the subjects, which lived in the experimental arena, developed this homing strategy during the habituation phase of the experiment (Siegrist et al, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The basic mechanisms of PI are hardwired and therefore work independently of the navigator's experience with its current surroundings (Siegrist et al, 2003). In a new environment, PI may therefore be self-sustained, but only as long as the navigator returns at regular intervals to his (identifiable) point of departure (Golani et al, 1993;Eilam et al, 2003;Arleo and Gerstner, 2000) and combines, if necessary, PI with systematic search movements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resetting the path integrator: a basic condition for route-based navigation

Etienne

Maurer

Boulens

et al. 2004

Journal of Experimental Biology

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During short excursions away from home, some mammals are known to update their position with respect to their point of departure through path integration (dead reckoning) by processing internal (idiothetic) signals generated by rotations and translations. Path integration (PI) is a continuously ongoing process in which errors accumulate. To remain functional over longer excursions, PI needs to be reset through position information from stable external references. We tested the homing behaviour of golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus W.) during hoarding excursions following a rotation of the arena and nest. In continuous darkness, the hamsters returned to their point of departure at the rotated nest, and therefore depended on PI only. In other trials, the animals were briefly presented with visual room cues during or at the end of the outward trip, visual cues being pitted by 67°or 98°against the animal's current selfgenerated position vector. After a fix, the animals headed for the usual (unrotated) nest location, as defined by room cues, independent of the timing of the fix. These results were obtained in two different geometrical settings and showed that, after the fix, the animals update their position, and not merely their head direction or internal compass, in a new reference frame. Thus, episodic fixes on familiar external references reset the PI and therefore greatly enhance the functional signification of navigation that is based on feedback information from locomotion.

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“…To date, due to its limitations, idiothetic path integration has often been interpreted as a back-up strategy allowing a mammal to explore unfamiliar areas in its immediate vicinity (33) and to navigate over short distances when landmarks are not available. To navigate, mammals rely primarily on visual cues as locationbased references that interact and cooperate with path integration but are not used as directional references for the path integration process itself (34).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A subterranean mammal uses the magnetic compass for path integration

Kimchi

Etienne²,

Terkel³

2004

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Path integration allows animals to navigate without landmarks by continuously processing signals generated through locomotion. Insects such as bees and ants have evolved an accurate path integration system, assessing and coding rotations with the help of a general directional reference, the sun azimuth. In mammals, by contrast, this process can take place through purely idiothetic (mainly proprioceptive and vestibular) signals. However, without any stable external reference for measuring direction, path integration is highly affected by cumulative errors and thus has been considered so far as valid only for short-distance navigation. Here we show through two path integration experiments (homing and shortcut finding) that the blind mole rat assesses direction both through internal signals and by estimating its heading in relation to the earth's magnetic field. Further, it is shown that the greater the circumvolution and length of the traveled path, the more the animal relies on the geomagnetic field. This path integration system strongly reduces the accumulation of errors due to inaccuracies in the estimation of rotations and thus allows the mole rat to navigate efficiently in darkness, without the help of any landmark, over both short and long distances.

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Homing by path integration in a new environment

Cited by 17 publications

References 24 publications

Path integration in mammals

Path integration in mammals

Resetting the path integrator: a basic condition for route-based navigation

A subterranean mammal uses the magnetic compass for path integration

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