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Spatial Navigation in Rats and Humans: A Neuropsychological Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2019

Ian Stuart Open the ORCID record for Ian Stuart [Opens in a new window]
Ian Stuart*
Affiliation:
Private Practice, Eastbourne House, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ianstuart2222@gmail.com
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Abstract

Background and objective:

In a landmark publication, O’Keefe & Dostrovsky (1971) presented a model for spatial navigation in the rat, the cognitive map theory. In this theory they proposed that the processing and storage of spatial information for spatial navigation takes place in the hippocampus. The theory was extended to include the contribution of the grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (Hafting et al. 2005). The cognitive map theory has been widely applied to spatial navigation in humans as well as rats. In this paper, an alternative theory is proposed in which spatial processing takes place in the right parieto-temporo-occipital area in humans, and that damage to this area causes a fragmentation in the sense of space, affecting the recall of both visual and tactile spatial information.

Method:

A group of eight subjects with damage to the right parieto-temporo-occipital area and a fragmented sense of space was assessed on tests of spatial navigation and memory and the results were compared with a group of patients with damage to the right hippocampus. Other comparison groups included left and right hemisphere subjects with normal spatial functioning.

Results:

The results suggest that, in the human, damage to the right parieto-temporo-occipital area causes a fragmentation in the sense of space, as well as an impaired memory for spatial material in both the visual and tactile modalities. These results support a model of spatial navigation in which the integrity of the right parieto-temporo-occipital area, and not the right hippocampus, is a necessary condition for the processing of spatial information in humans. An alternative explanation for the functioning of the right hippocampus is also presented.

Keywords

Cognitive map theoryparietal lobehippocampusmotor learningspatial coordinate systemtopographical disorientation
Type
Articles
Information
Brain Impairment , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , December 2019 , pp. 251 - 267
Copyright
© Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment 2019 

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