1.8 - Spatial Cognition II

Question 1

limit of small brain navigators (2)

Answer 1

1. learn sets of instructions for specific habitual routes
2. no complex internal map

Question 2

how do we know the hippocampus is a site of spatial knowledge?

Answer 2

lesions in hippocampus cause deficits in spatial behaviour

Question 3

difference in hippocampus of taxi drivers that have taken “the knowledge”

Answer 3

larger posterior hippocampus

Question 4

how to meadow moles provide evidence for the hippocampus being a site of spatial knowledge? (

Answer 4

1. male meadow voles spend lots of time searching for females (non-monogamous)
2. males have much larger home range size

• monogamous species have equal home range sizes between sexes

Question 5

place cells

Answer 5

different neurons respond to different regions (via firing)

Question 6

place cells in the hippocampus

Answer 6

firing specific to location, independently of orientation

Question 7

proof place cells are tied to visual landmarks (2)

Answer 7

1. cells fire consistent with preferred areas
2. rotation doesn’t change cells preference for certain cues in visual environment

• but maintain firing in dark

Question 8

role of place cells

Answer 8

might be site where visual learning and idiothetic information combined (path integration and visual landmarks combined)

Question 9

how do place cells receive input?

Answer 9

from many brain areas via entorhinal cortex

Question 10

head direction cells (2)

Answer 10

1. direction independently of location
2. population coding

Question 11

border cells (2)

Answer 11

1. fire when an animal is near the edge or boundary of an environment
2. cells selective to boundary orientation

Question 12

grid cells (2)

Answer 12

1. hexagonal array of firing fields
2. cells in different layers have different scales but same orientation

Question 13

proof of place cells in humans (2)

Answer 13

1. single unit recordings from subjects with electrodes
2. single cells in hippocampus show place fields