Unpacking the navigation toolbox: insights from comparative cognition

Abstract

The study of navigation is informed by ethological data from many species, laboratory investigation at behavioural and neurobiological levels, and computational modelling. However, the data are often species-specific, making it challenging to develop general models of how biology supports behaviour. Wiener et al . outlined a framework for organizing the results across taxa, called the ‘navigation toolbox’ (Wiener et al. In Animal thinking: contemporary issues in comparative cognition (eds R Menzel, J Fischer), pp. 51–76). This framework proposes that spatial cognition is a hierarchical process in which sensory inputs at the lowest level are successively combined into ever-more complex representations, culminating in a metric or quasi-metric internal model of the world (cognitive map). Some animals, notably humans, also use symbolic representations to produce an external representation, such as a verbal description, signpost or map that allows communication of spatial information or instructions between individuals. Recently, new discoveries have extended our understanding of how spatial representations are constructed, highlighting that the hierarchical relationships are bidirectional, with higher levels feeding back to influence lower levels. In the light of these new developments, we revisit the navigation toolbox, elaborate it and incorporate new findings. The toolbox provides a common framework within which the results from different taxa can be described and compared, yielding a more detailed, mechanistic and generalized understanding of navigation.

Phylogeny of neocortical-hippocampal projections provides insight in the nature of human memory

“…Importantly, these systems were proposed to be phylogenetically dependent on each other, such that different systems have emerged at different evolutionary stages 25 . More recent accounts on spatial navigation suggest a common framework that can account for the rich behavioral and experimental variability across different species 23 . According to this framework, human memory can be studied as a form of navigation (albeit in abstract spaces 26 ), even though these two functions seem to be different and are typically tested by different experimental paradigms.…”

“…In addition to episodic memory, which is studied mostly in humans, the mammalian hippocampal region is known to be involved in additional functions, such as associative learning and navigation 20–22 . While these seemingly distinct functional properties of the hippocampus are typically considered separately and species-specific, they can also be seen in tandem, representing a functional continuum of a hierarchical increase in mnemonic complexity across species 22,23 . For example, early memory theories suggested an existence of multiple memory systems that can be classified, for example, into “associative memory”, “representational memory” and “abstract memory” 24 .…”