Path integration in mammals

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 pat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hippocampus 2004, Vol.14 (2), p.180-192
Main Authors: Etienne, Ariane S., Jeffery, Kathryn J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
cognitive map
Cues
hippocampus
Hippocampus - cytology
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
landmarks
Mammals - physiology
navigation
Orientation - physiology
path integration
self-motion cues
Space Perception - physiology
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Summary: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. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ISSN:1050-9631
1098-1063
DOI:10.1002/hipo.10173