Etienne A S, Maurer R, Berlie J, Reverdin B, Rowe T, Georgakopoulos J, Séguinot V
Laboratoire d'Ethologie, FPSE, Université de Genève, Carouge, Switzerland.
Nature. 1998 Nov 12;396(6707):161-4. doi: 10.1038/24151.
During short foraging excursions away from their home, central place foragers update their position relative to their point of departure by processing signals generated by locomotion. They therefore can home along a self-generated vector without using learned references. In rodents and other mammals, this path integration process (dead reckoning) can occur on the basis of purely internal signals, such as vestibular or proprioceptive (re)afferences. We report here that hamsters are also capable of proceeding to a previously learned feeding site through vector information from locomotion only. The subjects compute the direction and distance to the goal by subtracting their current-position vector from the stored nest-to-goal vector. This computation pertains to locations per se and therefore occurs in absolute space, independently of landmark objects. If available, prominent visual cues merely serve to confirm the path planned through the addition of self-generated vectors, whereas visual as well as nonvisual references confirm that the subject has arrived at the goal site.
在离开巢穴进行短途觅食时，中心地觅食者通过处理运动产生的信号来更新其相对于出发地的位置。因此，它们可以沿着自我生成的向量归巢，而无需使用习得的参考物。在啮齿动物和其他哺乳动物中，这种路径整合过程（航位推算）可以基于纯粹的内部信号发生，比如前庭或本体感受（再）传入信号。我们在此报告，仓鼠也能够仅通过来自运动的向量信息前往之前习得的觅食地点。实验对象通过从存储的巢穴到目标的向量中减去其当前位置向量来计算目标的方向和距离。这种计算与位置本身相关，因此发生在绝对空间中，与地标物体无关。如果有突出的视觉线索，它们仅用于通过添加自我生成的向量来确认规划的路径，而视觉以及非视觉参考物则用于确认实验对象已到达目标地点。
