Rossier J, Haeberli C, Schenk F
Institute of Physiology, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 7, 1005, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Behav Brain Res. 2000 Dec 20;117(1-2):209-14. doi: 10.1016/s0166-4328(00)00293-x.
Rats, like other crepuscular animals, have excellent auditory capacities and they discriminate well between different sounds [Heffner HE, Heffner RS, Hearing in two cricetid rodents: wood rats (Neotoma floridana) and grasshopper mouse (Onychomys leucogaster). J Comp Psychol 1985;99(3):275-88]. However, most experimental literature concerning spatial orientation almost exclusively emphasizes the use of visual landmarks [Cressant A, Muller RU, Poucet B. Failure of centrally placed objects to control the firing fields of hippocampal place cells. J Neurosci 1997;17(7):2531-42; and Goodridge JP, Taube JS. Preferential use of the landmark navigational system by head direction cells in rats. Behav Neurosci 1995;109(1):49-61]. To address the important issue of whether rats are able to achieve a place navigation task relative to auditory beacons, we designed a place learning task in the water maze. We controlled cue availability by conducting the experiment in total darkness. Three auditory cues did not allow place navigation whereas three visual cues in the same positions did support place navigation. One auditory beacon directly associated with the goal location did not support taxon navigation (a beacon strategy allowing the animal to find the goal just by swimming toward the cue). Replacing the auditory beacons by one single visual beacon did support taxon navigation. A multimodal configuration of two auditory cues and one visual cue allowed correct place navigation. The deletion of the two auditory or of the one visual cue did disrupt the spatial performance. Thus rats can combine information from different sensory modalities to achieve a place navigation task. In particular, auditory cues support place navigation when associated with a visual one.
与其他晨昏性动物一样，大鼠具有出色的听觉能力，能够很好地区分不同的声音[赫夫纳·H·E，赫夫纳·R·S，两种仓鼠科啮齿动物的听觉：林鼠（佛罗里达林鼠）和食蝗鼠（白足鼠）。《比较心理学杂志》1985年；99(3):275 - 88]。然而，大多数关于空间定向的实验文献几乎都只强调视觉地标的使用[克雷桑特·A，米勒·R·U，普塞·B。中央放置的物体无法控制海马位置细胞的放电场。《神经科学杂志》1997年；17(7):2531 - 42；以及古德里奇·J·P，陶布·J·S。大鼠头部方向细胞对地标导航系统的优先使用。《行为神经科学》1995年；10(1):49 - 61]。为了解决大鼠是否能够相对于听觉信标完成位置导航任务这一重要问题，我们在水迷宫中设计了一个位置学习任务。我们通过在完全黑暗的环境中进行实验来控制线索的可用性。三个听觉线索不允许进行位置导航，而相同位置的三个视觉线索则支持位置导航。一个与目标位置直接相关的听觉信标不支持分类导航（一种信标策略，允许动物仅通过朝着线索游动就能找到目标）。用一个单一的视觉信标取代听觉信标确实支持分类导航。两个听觉线索和一个视觉线索的多模态配置允许正确的位置导航。删除两个听觉线索或一个视觉线索确实会扰乱空间表现。因此，大鼠可以整合来自不同感觉模态的信息来完成位置导航任务。特别是，当听觉线索与视觉线索相关联时，它支持位置导航。
