Schluessel Vera, Bleckmann Horst
Institute of Zoology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-University Bonn, 53111 Bonn, Germany.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2005 Aug;191(8):695-706. doi: 10.1007/s00359-005-0625-9. Epub 2005 May 14.
We investigated whether juvenile freshwater stingrays (Potamotrygon motoro) can solve spatial tasks by constructing a cognitive map of their environment. Two experimental conditions were run: allocentric and ego-allocentric. Rays were trained to locate food within a four-arm maze placed in a room with visual spatial cues. The feeding location (goal) within the maze (room) remained constant while the starting position varied for the allocentrically but not for the ego-allocentrically trained group. After training, all rays solved the experimental tasks; however, different orientation strategies were used within and between groups. Allocentrically trained rays reached the goal via novel routes starting from unfamiliar locations, while ego-allocentrically trained rays primarily solved the task on the basis of an egocentric turn response. Our data suggest that P. motoro orients by constructing a visual cognitive map of its environment, but also uses egocentric and/or other orientation strategies alone or in combination for spatial orientation, a choice which may be governed by the complexity of the problem. We conclude that spatial memory functions are a general feature of the vertebrate brain.
我们研究了幼年淡水黄貂鱼（Potamotrygon motoro）是否能够通过构建其环境的认知地图来解决空间任务。进行了两种实验条件：以自我为中心和以自我为中心的自我中心。将黄貂鱼训练在一个放置在有视觉空间线索的房间里的四臂迷宫中定位食物。迷宫（房间）内的喂食位置（目标）保持不变，而对于以自我为中心训练的组，起始位置不同，而对于以自我为中心训练的组则不变。训练后，所有黄貂鱼都解决了实验任务；然而，组内和组间使用了不同的定向策略。以自我为中心训练的黄貂鱼通过从陌生位置开始的新路线到达目标，而以自我为中心训练的黄貂鱼主要基于自我中心转向反应解决任务。我们的数据表明，P. motoro通过构建其环境的视觉认知地图来定向，但也单独或组合使用自我中心和/或其他定向策略进行空间定向，这种选择可能受问题复杂性的支配。我们得出结论，空间记忆功能是脊椎动物大脑的一个普遍特征。
