Avni Reut, Tzvaigrach Yael, Eilam David
Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv 69978, Israel.
J Exp Biol. 2008 Sep;211(Pt 17):2817-26. doi: 10.1242/jeb.019927.
The aim of this study was to uncover the process of initial spatial mapping of the environment. For this, blind mole rats (Spalax ehrenbergi), were tested in an unfamiliar square arena, in order to reveal how they construct a spatial representation. The mole rats first displayed a build-up phase, in which they gradually formed a path along the perimeter while travelling slowly, frequently pausing and repeating previously travelled segments of the path. This behaviour was followed by a free-travel phase, in which the mole rats appeared to locomote smoothly along the perimeter and through the centre of the arena while travelling faster with fewer stops or repetitions of path segments. Familiarity with the environment was reflected in local shortcuts at the arena corners and global shortcuts (crosscuts) through the arena centre. We suggest that scanning the perimeter throughout the build-up phase constitute a process of calibration, i.e. forming an initial representation of the size and perhaps the shape of the environment--a sort of basic global map. We further suggest that this calibration is later used for navigation, as indicated by the emergence of global crosscuts in the subsequent phase. Further investigation of the build-up phase, e.g. by manipulating environment size, might provide additional insight into the course of establishment of global environment representation (mapping).
本研究的目的是揭示对环境进行初始空间映射的过程。为此，我们对盲鼹鼠（斯氏鼹鼠）在一个陌生的方形场地中进行了测试，以了解它们如何构建空间表征。鼹鼠首先表现出一个积累阶段，在此阶段它们沿着周边逐渐形成一条路径，同时移动缓慢，频繁停顿并重复之前走过的路径段。此行为之后是一个自由移动阶段，在此阶段鼹鼠似乎沿着周边并穿过场地中心平稳移动，移动速度更快，停顿或重复路径段的次数更少。对环境的熟悉程度体现在场地角落的局部捷径以及穿过场地中心的全局捷径（交叉捷径）上。我们认为，在整个积累阶段扫描周边构成了一个校准过程，即形成环境大小以及可能形状的初始表征——一种基本的全局地图。我们进一步认为，这种校准随后用于导航，后续阶段出现的全局交叉捷径就表明了这一点。对积累阶段进行进一步研究，例如通过操纵环境大小，可能会为全局环境表征（映射）的建立过程提供更多见解。
