Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T13:19:11.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Navigating in a volumetric world: Metric encoding in the vertical axis of space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2013

Theresa Burt de Perera ,
Robert Holbrook ,
Victoria Davis ,
Alex Kacelnik  and
Tim Guilford
Theresa Burt de Perera
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom. [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]://oxnav.zoo.ox.ac.uk/
Robert Holbrook
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom. [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]://oxnav.zoo.ox.ac.uk/
Victoria Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom. [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]://oxnav.zoo.ox.ac.uk/
Alex Kacelnik
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom. [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]://oxnav.zoo.ox.ac.uk/
Tim Guilford
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom. [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]://oxnav.zoo.ox.ac.uk/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Animals navigate through three-dimensional environments, but we argue that the way they encode three-dimensional spatial information is shaped by how they use the vertical component of space. We agree with Jeffery et al. that the representation of three-dimensional space in vertebrates is probably bicoded (with separation of the plane of locomotion and its orthogonal axis), but we believe that their suggestion that the vertical axis is stored “contextually” (that is, not containing distance or direction metrics usable for novel computations) is unlikely, and as yet unsupported. We describe potential experimental protocols that could clarify these differences in opinion empirically.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , October 2013 , pp. 546 - 547
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Domjan, M. (2009) The principles of learning and behavior, 6th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Foley, H. J. & Matlin, M. W. (2010) Sensation and perception, 5th edition. Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Grobéty, M. C. & Schenk, F. (1992a) Spatial learning in a three-dimensional maze. Animal Behaviour 43(6):1011–20.Google Scholar
Hayman, R., Verriotis, M. A., Jovalekic, A., Fenton, A. A. & Jeffery, K. J. (2011) Anisotropic encoding of three-dimensional space by place cells and grid cells. Nature Neuroscience 14(9):1182–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holbrook, R. I. & Burt de Perera, T. B. (2009) Separate encoding of vertical and horizontal components of space during orientation in fish. Animal Behaviour 78(2):241–45.Google Scholar
Holbrook, R. I. & Burt de Perera, T. (2011b) Three-dimensional spatial cognition: Information in the vertical dimension overrides information from the horizontal. Animal Cognition 14:613–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jovalekic, A., Hayman, R., Becares, N., Reid, H., Thomas, G., Wilson, J. & Jeffery, K. (2011) Horizontal biases in rats' use of three-dimensional space. Behavioural Brain Research 222(2):279–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lent, D. D., Graham, P. & Collett, T. S. (2010) Image-matching during ant navigation occurs through saccade-like body turns controlled by learned visual features. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107:16348–53.Google Scholar
Mueller, M. & Wehner, R. (2010) Path integration provides a scaffold for landmark learning in desert ants. Current Biology 20:1368–71.Google Scholar