scholarly journals Path integration in mammals and its interaction with visual landmarks.

1996 ◽  
Vol 199 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
A S Etienne ◽  
R Maurer ◽  
V Séguinot
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Dead Reckoning ◽  
Visual Landmarks ◽  
Integration System ◽  
External Cues ◽  
Rapid Accumulation ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Inertial Cues

During locomotion, mammals update their position with respect to a fixed point of reference, such as their point of departure, by processing inertial cues, proprioceptive feedback and stored motor commands generated during locomotion. This so-called path integration system (dead reckoning) allows the animal to return to its home, or to a familiar feeding place, even when external cues are absent or novel. However, without the use of external cues, the path integration process leads to rapid accumulation of errors involving both the direction and distance of the goal. Therefore, even nocturnal species such as hamsters and mice rely more on previously learned visual references than on the path integration system when the two types of information are in conflict. Recent studies investigate the extent to which path integration and familiar visual cues cooperate to optimize the navigational performance.

scholarly journals Visual navigation in insects: coupling of egocentric and geocentric information

1996 ◽  
Vol 199 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Wehner ◽  
B Michel ◽  
P Antonsen
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Dead Reckoning ◽  
Positional Information ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Visual Navigation ◽  
Topographic Map ◽  
Integration System ◽  
First Case ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Vector Information

Social hymenopterans such as bees and ants are central-place foragers; they regularly depart from and return to fixed positions in their environment. In returning to the starting point of their foraging excursion or to any other point, they could resort to two fundamentally different ways of navigation by using either egocentric or geocentric systems of reference. In the first case, they would rely on information continuously collected en route (path integration, dead reckoning), i.e. integrate all angles steered and all distances covered into a mean home vector. In the second case, they are expected, at least by some authors, to use a map-based system of navigation, i.e. to obtain positional information by virtue of the spatial position they occupy within a larger environmental framework. In bees and ants, path integration employing a skylight compass is the predominant mechanism of navigation, but geocentred landmark-based information is used as well. This information is obtained while the animal is dead-reckoning and, hence, added to the vector course. For example, the image of the horizon skyline surrounding the nest entrance is retinotopically stored while the animal approaches the goal along its vector course. As shown in desert ants (genus Cataglyphis), there is neither interocular nor intraocular transfer of landmark information. Furthermore, this retinotopically fixed, and hence egocentred, neural snapshot is linked to an external (geocentred) system of reference. In this way, geocentred information might more and more complement and potentially even supersede the egocentred information provided by the path-integration system. In competition experiments, however, Cataglyphis never frees itself of its homeward-bound vector - its safety-line, so to speak - by which it is always linked to home. Vector information can also be transferred to a longer-lasting (higher-order) memory. There is no need to invoke the concept of the mental analogue of a topographic map - a metric map - assembled by the insect navigator. The flexible use of vectors, snapshots and landmark-based routes suffices to interpret the insect's behaviour. The cognitive-map approach in particular, and the representational paradigm in general, are discussed.

scholarly journals Learning to recalibrate the role of dead reckoning and visual cues in spatial navigation

1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane S. Etienne ◽  
Sylvie Joris Lambert ◽  
Benoit Reverdin ◽  
Evelyne Teroni
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Spatial Navigation ◽  
Dead Reckoning

Delineation as Road Signing: A Study of Visual Cues on Rural Roads at Night

1979 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 449-451
Author(s):  
T. J. Triggs ◽  
W. G. Harris ◽  
B. N. Fildes
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Rural Roads ◽  
Right Hand ◽  
Types Of Information

Formal delineation schemes on rural roads need to supply several types of information to the driver under night conditions. He needs longer-term delineation information or reasonable preview in order to plan ahead on approach to curves. The experiment reported explored the effect of various delineation schemes, road contour, distance to the curve, and the curve direction of turn under two reaction time instructional conditions. The results demonstrated that road-side post delineation provides effective information of this type, while no benefit was found from edgelining. Right-hand curves were responded to faster and were more easily detected than left-handers.* Several interesting interactions were found between the factors studied.

The ant?s path integration system: a neural architecture

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 483-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Hartmann ◽  
R�diger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Integration System ◽  
Neural Architecture ◽  
System A

scholarly journals Both visual and idiothetic cues contribute to head direction cell stability during navigation along complex routes

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (6) ◽  
pp. 2989-3001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan M. Yoder ◽  
Benjamin J. Clark ◽  
Joel E. Brown ◽  
Mignon V. Lamia ◽  
Stephane Valerio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Path Integration ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Cell Activity ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Motion Cues ◽  
Cell Stability ◽  
Self Motion ◽  
The Relationship

Successful navigation requires a constantly updated neural representation of directional heading, which is conveyed by head direction (HD) cells. The HD signal is predominantly controlled by visual landmarks, but when familiar landmarks are unavailable, self-motion cues are able to control the HD signal via path integration. Previous studies of the relationship between HD cell activity and path integration have been limited to two or more arenas located in the same room, a drawback for interpretation because the same visual cues may have been perceptible across arenas. To address this issue, we tested the relationship between HD cell activity and path integration by recording HD cells while rats navigated within a 14-unit T-maze and in a multiroom maze that consisted of unique arenas that were located in different rooms but connected by a passageway. In the 14-unit T-maze, the HD signal remained relatively stable between the start and goal boxes, with the preferred firing directions usually shifting <45° during maze traversal. In the multiroom maze in light, the preferred firing directions also remained relatively constant between rooms, but with greater variability than in the 14-unit maze. In darkness, HD cell preferred firing directions showed marginally more variability between rooms than in the lighted condition. Overall, the results indicate that self-motion cues are capable of maintaining the HD cell signal in the absence of familiar visual cues, although there are limits to its accuracy. In addition, visual information, even when unfamiliar, can increase the precision of directional perception.

scholarly journals Navigational path integration by cortical neurons: origins in higher-order direction selectivity

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (6) ◽  
pp. 1896-1906 ◽  
Author(s):  
William K. Page ◽  
Nobuya Sato ◽  
Michael T. Froehler ◽  
William Vaughn ◽  
Charles J. Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Path Integration ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Circular Path ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Relative Prevalence

Navigation relies on the neural processing of sensory cues about observer self-movement and spatial location. Neurons in macaque dorsal medial superior temporal cortex (MSTd) respond to visual and vestibular self-movement cues, potentially contributing to navigation and orientation. We moved monkeys on circular paths around a room while recording the activity of MSTd neurons. MSTd neurons show a variety of sensitivities to the monkey's heading direction, circular path through the room, and place in the room. Changing visual cues alters the relative prevalence of those response properties. Disrupting the continuity of self-movement paths through the environment disrupts path selectivity in a manner linked to the time course of single neuron responses. We hypothesize that sensory cues interact with the spatial and temporal integrative properties of MSTd neurons to derive path selectivity for navigational path integration supporting spatial orientation.

scholarly journals Recalibration of path integration in hippocampal place cells

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravikrishnan P. Jayakumar ◽  
Manu S. Madhav ◽  
Francesco Savelli ◽  
Hugh T. Blair ◽  
Noah J. Cowan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Gain Factor ◽  
Place Cells ◽  
Cognitive Map ◽  
Mammalian Brain ◽  
Positional Error ◽  
Visual Landmarks ◽  
Augmented Reality System ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
Integration Gain

SummaryHippocampal place cells are spatially tuned neurons that serve as elements of a “cognitive map” in the mammalian brain1. To detect the animal’s location, place cells are thought to rely upon two interacting mechanisms: sensing the animal’s position relative to familiar landmarks2,3 and measuring the distance and direction that the animal has travelled from previously occupied locations4–7. The latter mechanism, known as path integration, requires a finely tuned gain factor that relates the animal’s self-movement to the updating of position on the internal cognitive map, with external landmarks necessary to correct positional error that eventually accumulates8,9. Path-integration-based models of hippocampal place cells and entorhinal grid cells treat the path integration gain as a constant9–14, but behavioral evidence in humans suggests that the gain is modifiable15. Here we show physiological evidence from hippocampal place cells that the path integration gain is indeed a highly plastic variable that can be altered by persistent conflict between self-motion cues and feedback from external landmarks. In a novel, augmented reality system, visual landmarks were moved in proportion to the animal’s movement on a circular track, creating continuous conflict with path integration. Sustained exposure to this cue conflict resulted in predictable and prolonged recalibration of the path integration gain, as estimated from the place cells after the landmarks were extinguished. We propose that this rapid plasticity keeps the positional update in register with the animal’s movement in the external world over behavioral timescales (mean 50 laps over 35 minutes). These results also demonstrate that visual landmarks not only provide a signal to correct cumulative error in the path integration system, as has been previously shown4,8,16–19, but also rapidly fine-tune the integration computation itself.

scholarly journals Spatial and featural cue weighting in children’s developing object representations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislav Ayzenberg ◽  
Samoni Nag ◽  
Amy Krivoshik ◽  
Stella F. Lourenco
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Object Representations ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Object Individuation ◽  
Developmental Shift ◽  
Types Of Information

To accurately represent an object, it must be individuated from the surrounding objects and then classified with the appropriate category or identity. To this end, adults flexibly weight different visual cues when perceiving objects. However, less is known about whether, and how, the weighting of visual object information changes over development. The current study examined how children use different types of information— spatial (e.g., left/right location) and featural (e.g., color)—in different object tasks. In Experiment 1, we tested whether infants and preschoolers extract both the spatial and featural properties of objects, and, importantly, how these cues are weighted when pitted against each other. We found that infants relied primarily on spatial cues and neglected featural cues. By contrast, preschoolers showed the opposite pattern of weighting, placing greater weight on featural information. In Experiment 2, we tested the hypothesis that the developmental shift from spatial to featural weighting reflects a shift from a priority on object individuation (how many objects) in infancy to object classification (what are the objects) at preschool age. Here, we found that preschoolers weighted spatial information more than features when the task required individuating objects without identifying them, consistent with a specific role for spatial information in object individuation. We discuss the relevance of spatial-featural weighting in relation to developmental changes in children’s object representations.

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