The Neurobiology of Spatial Behaviour

This book explores the relationship between cellular processes and animal behaviour. It does this by focusing on the domain of navigation, bringing together scientists from either side of the brain-behaviour divide in an attempt to explain the linkage between spatial behaviour and the underlying activity of neurons. The Neurobiology of Spatial Behaviour is organised into two sections. Section one deals with the so-called 'higher' levels of description - studies of spatial behaviour and the brain areas that might underlie such behaviour. The section begins with insects, remarkably sophisticated navigators, and ends with humans, examining along the way issues such as whether animal brains contain maps and whether spatial and non-spatial information interact, and if so, how? Section two delves further into the brain and focuses on the mammalian representation of space and the role of place cells. These issues have far wider ramifications that simply helping us to understand the process of navigation. This system might provide a model for how other forms of knowledge, beliefs and intentions are encoded in neurons. As such, the book will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience, including ethologists, psychologists, behavioural neuroscientists, computational modellers, physiological neuroscientists and molecular biologists.

- Preface - Part 1: From Behaviour to Circuitry: Introduction - 1: R Wehner and M V Srinivasan: Path integration in insects - 2: D Wallace et al: A role for the hippocampus in dead reckoning: an ethological analysis using natural exploratory and food-carrying tasks - 3: A S Etienne: How does path integration interact with olfaction, vision and the representation of space? - 4: T S Collett et al: Contextual cues and insect navigation - 5: B J Wiltgen and M S Fanselow: A model of hippocampal-cortical-amygdala interactions based on contextual fear conditioning - 6: S Healy et al: Do animals use maps? - 7: R F Wang and E S Spelke: Comparative approaches to human navigation - 8: T Hartley et al: Studies of the neural basis of human navigation and memory - Part 2: From Circuits to Cells: Introduction - 9: Dudchenko: The head direction system and navigation - 10: B Poucet et al: Drawing parallels between the behavioural and neural properties of navigation - 11: C Lever et al: Spatial coding in the hippocampal formation: input, information type, plasticity and behaviour - 12: J J Knierim: Hippocampal remapping: implications for spatial learning and navigation - 13: A A Fenton and J Bures: Navigation in the moving world - 14: R Biegler: Reading cognitive and other maps: how to avoid getting buried in thought - 15: M I Anderson et al: The representation of spatial context - 16: E R Wood: Place cells: a framework for episodic memory