Place recognition and heading retrieval are mediated by dissociable cognitive systems in mice

Joshua B Julian; Alexander T Keinath; Isabel A Muzzio; Russell A Epstein

doi:10.1073/pnas.1424194112

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Place recognition and heading retrieval are mediated by dissociable cognitive systems in mice

Journal article

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Peer reviewed

Place recognition and heading retrieval are mediated by dissociable cognitive systems in mice

Joshua B Julian, Alexander T Keinath, Isabel A Muzzio and Russell A Epstein

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.112(20), pp.6503-6508

05/19/2015

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1424194112

PMCID: PMC4443371

PMID: 25941390

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Abstract

A lost navigator must identify its current location and recover its facing direction to restore its bearings. We tested the idea that these two tasks--place recognition and heading retrieval--might be mediated by distinct cognitive systems in mice. Previous work has shown that numerous species, including young children and rodents, use the geometric shape of local space to regain their sense of direction after disorientation, often ignoring nongeometric cues even when they are informative. Notably, these experiments have almost always been performed in single-chamber environments in which there is no ambiguity about place identity. We examined the navigational behavior of mice in a two-chamber paradigm in which animals had to both recognize the chamber in which they were located (place recognition) and recover their facing direction within that chamber (heading retrieval). In two experiments, we found that mice used nongeometric features for place recognition, but simultaneously failed to use these same features for heading retrieval, instead relying exclusively on spatial geometry. These results suggest the existence of separate systems for place recognition and heading retrieval in mice that are differentially sensitive to geometric and nongeometric cues. We speculate that a similar cognitive architecture may underlie human navigational behavior.

Analysis of Variance

Animals

Cognition - physiology

Cues

Male

Mice

Mice, Inbred C57BL

Models, Psychological

Orientation - physiology

Recognition (Psychology) - physiology

Spatial Navigation - physiology

Details

Title: Subtitle: Place recognition and heading retrieval are mediated by dissociable cognitive systems in mice
Creators: Joshua B Julian - University of Pennsylvania
Alexander T Keinath - University of Pennsylvania
Isabel A Muzzio - University of Pennsylvania
Russell A Epstein - University of Pennsylvania
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.112(20), pp.6503-6508
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1424194112
PMID: 25941390
PMCID: PMC4443371
NLM abbreviation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN: 0027-8424
eISSN: 1091-6490
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Grant note: R01 EY022350 / NEI NIH HHS EY022350 / NEI NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 05/19/2015
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984295029002771

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