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Navigating in a three-dimensional world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2013

Kathryn J. Jeffery ,
Aleksandar Jovalekic ,
Madeleine Verriotis  and
Robin Hayman
Kathryn J. Jeffery
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences, Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, United Kingdom. k.jeffery@ucl.ac.ukwww.ucl.ac.uk/jefferylab/
Aleksandar Jovalekic
Affiliation:
Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland. ajovalekic@ini.phys.ethz.ch
Madeleine Verriotis
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom. madeleine.verriotis@ucl.ac.uk
Robin Hayman
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Alexandra House, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom. r.hayman@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

The study of spatial cognition has provided considerable insight into how animals (including humans) navigate on the horizontal plane. However, the real world is three-dimensional, having a complex topography including both horizontal and vertical features, which presents additional challenges for representation and navigation. The present article reviews the emerging behavioral and neurobiological literature on spatial cognition in non-horizontal environments. We suggest that three-dimensional spaces are represented in a quasi-planar fashion, with space in the plane of locomotion being computed separately and represented differently from space in the orthogonal axis – a representational structure we have termed “bicoded.” We argue that the mammalian spatial representation in surface-travelling animals comprises a mosaic of these locally planar fragments, rather than a fully integrated volumetric map. More generally, this may be true even for species that can move freely in all three dimensions, such as birds and fish. We outline the evidence supporting this view, together with the adaptive advantages of such a scheme.

Keywords

ethologygrid cellshead direction cellshippocampusnavigationneural encodingplace cellsspatial cognitionthree-dimensional
Type
Target Article
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , October 2013 , pp. 523 - 543
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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