Spatial Cognitive Maps in Animals: New Hypotheses on Their Structure and Neural Mechanisms

This article provides a hierarchical model of animal spatial cognitive maps. Such maps include both topological information, which affords loose, yet operational, representations of the connectivity of space and its overall arrangement, and metric information, which provides information about angles...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological review 1993-04, Vol.100 (2), p.163-182
Main Author: Poucet, Bruno
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Animal
Animal cognition
Animals
Attention - physiology
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Cognitive Maps
Distance Perception - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hippocampus - physiology
Mental Recall - physiology
Neurobiology
Orientation - physiology
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Space life sciences
Space Perception - physiology
Spatial Organization
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Summary:This article provides a hierarchical model of animal spatial cognitive maps. Such maps include both topological information, which affords loose, yet operational, representations of the connectivity of space and its overall arrangement, and metric information, which provides information about angles and distances. The model holds that maps can be initially described as a set of location-dependent reference frameworks providing directional information about other locations. The addition of an overall directional reference allows for the buildup of more complete (allocentric) representations. A survey of recent neurobiological data provides some hints about the brain structures involved in these processes and suggests that the hippocampal formation and the posterior parietal cortex would act differently by handling topological and metric information, respectively.
ISSN:0033-295X
1939-1471
DOI:10.1037/0033-295X.100.2.163