Sun-Compasss Orientation in the Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrel, Spermophilus tridecemlineatus

Haigh, Gale R.

doi:10.2307/1380108

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…This preliminary result warrants further consideration in light of the existence of head-direction cells. Two field studies of related interest have shown that rodents can use the position of the sun as a compass for homeward orientation (Fluharty et al, 1976;Haigh, 1979). These 3 studies suggest that rodents possess a "sense of direction."…”

Section: Comparisons Of Head-direction Cells and Hippocampal Place Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Head-direction cells recorded from the postsubiculum in freely moving rats. II. Effects of environmental manipulations

1990

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The discharge characteristics of postsubicular head-direction cells in a fixed environment were described in the previous paper (Taube et al., 1990). This paper reports changes in the firing properties of head-direction cells following changes in the animal's environment. Head-direction cells were recorded from rats as they moved freely in a 76-cm-diameter gray cylinder. A white card, occupying 100 degrees of arc, was taped to the inside wall of the cylinder and served as the major orienting spatial cue in the animal's environment. Rotation of the cue card produced near-equal rotation in the preferred firing direction of head-direction cells, with minimal changes in peak firing rate, directional firing range, or asymmetry of the firing-rate/head-direction function. Card removal had no effect on peak firing rate or range of firing, but in 8/13 cells the preferred direction rotated by at least 24 degrees. Similarly, changing the shape of the environment to a rectangular or square enclosure caused the preferred firing direction to rotate by at least 48 degrees for 8/10 cells in the rectangle and 3/8 cells in the square, with minimal changes in the peak firing rate or directional firing range. Hand holding the animals and moving them around the cylinder had no effect on the preferred direction or firing range of the cell, but decreased the maximal firing rate in 7/9 cells. On 2 occasions, 2 head-direction cells were recorded simultaneously. The rotation of the preferred firing direction for one cell was the same as the rotation of the preferred direction for the second cell after each environmental manipulation. These results demonstrate that specific visual cues in the environment can exert control over the preferred firing direction and indicate that head-direction cell firing is not a simple sensory response to visual cues, but rather represents more abstract information concerning the animal's spatial relationship with its environment. The constancy of the angle between the preferred firing directions of pairs of simultaneously recorded head-direction cells suggests that there is a fixed mapping of the population onto direction within the environment. Thus, environmental manipulations appear to cause only a change in the reference direction, but leave all other discharge characteristics of directional cells unchanged. In the discussion, comparisons are drawn between the responses of head-direction cells and hippocampal place cells to similar environmental manipulations (Muller and Kubie, 1987), and ways in which these 2 spatial systems interact in navigation are discussed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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Section: Comparisons Of Head-direction Cells and Hippocampal Place Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Head-direction cells recorded from the postsubiculum in freely moving rats. II. Effects of environmental manipulations

1990

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“…Evidence for the use of time-dependent solar cues in orientation has been found in many other taxa, including frogs ( Landreth & Ferguson, 1968 ), turtles ( DeRosa & Taylor, 1978; Graham, Gergoes, & McElhinney, 1996 ), lizards ( Adler & Philips, 1985 ), rodents ( Fluharty, Taylor, & Barrett, 1976; Haigh, 1979 ), sandhoppers ( Pardi & Grassi, 1955; Ugolini, Melis, Innocenti, Tiribilli, & Castellini, 1999 ) and insects (Lepidoptera: Perez, Taylor, & Jander, 1997; Reppert et al., 2010 ; Hymenoptera: Wehner & Müller, 1993 ). Although we frame our argument here in relation to birds, the ideas that we develop are sufficiently general that they should also apply to other taxa.…”

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confidence: 99%

The sun compass revisited

Guilford

Taylor

2014

Animal Behaviour

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Many animals, and birds in particular, are thought to use directional information from the sun in the form of a time-compensated sun compass, with predictably deviated orientation under clock shift being regarded as the litmus test of this. We suggest that this paradigm obscures a number of other ways in which solar-derived information could be important in animal orientation. We distinguish between the known use of the sun's azimuth to provide absolute geographical direction (compass mechanism) and its possible use to detect changes in heading (heading indicator mechanism). Just as in an aircraft, these two kinds of information may be provided by separate mechanisms and used for different functions, for example for navigation versus steering. We also argue that although a solar compass must be time-referenced to account for the sun's apparent diurnal movement, this need not entail full time compensation. This is because animals might also use time-dependent solar information in an associatively acquired, and hence time-limited, way. Furthermore, we show that a solar heading indicator, when used on a sufficiently short timescale, need not require time compensation at all. Finally, we suggest that solar-derived cues, such as shadows, could also be involved in navigation in ways that depend explicitly upon position, and are therefore not strictly compass-related. This could include giving directionality to landmarks, or acting as time-dependent landmarks involved in place recognition. We conclude that clock shift experiments alone are neither necessary nor sufficient to identify the occurrence of all conceivable uses of solar information in animal orientation, so that a predictable response to clock shift should not be regarded as an acid test of the use of solar information in navigation.

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Magnetoreception and the Search for Magnetic Material in Rodents

Mather

1985

Topics in Geobiology

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Sun-Compasss Orientation in the Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrel, Spermophilus tridecemlineatus

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Head-direction cells recorded from the postsubiculum in freely moving rats. II. Effects of environmental manipulations

Head-direction cells recorded from the postsubiculum in freely moving rats. II. Effects of environmental manipulations

The sun compass revisited

Magnetoreception and the Search for Magnetic Material in Rodents

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