Impaired processing of local geometric features during navigation in a water maze following hippocampal lesions in rats.

Jones, Peter M.; Pearce, John M.; Davies, Vanessa J.; Good, Mark Andrew; McGregor, Anthony

doi:10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1258

Cited by 34 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Results of logistic regressions (Table 2) showed that IQ significantly predicted geometric performance in both the black-wall and bluewall conditions, but that the visual-spatial construction task [Differential Abilities Scale (DAS)] predicted geometric performance in only the black-walled room. The different relationship with the DAS suggests that different mechanisms might underlie performance in the two conditions, consistent with the evidence that different neurological substrates control geometric and feature-based responding in navigation tasks (19). The correlation with IQ might mean that retardation more generally affects the ability to construct and use geometric representations of layouts; additional studies with other populations such as Down syndrome would be relevant but have not been carried out to our knowledge.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 53%

“…People with WS have a profile of mild to moderate retardation and highly selective but severe impairment in a range of spatial tasks that normally engage parietal and other dorsal stream functions of the brain (13,14). Recent imaging studies show structural and functional abnormalities of the occipital-parietal as well as hippocampal regions of the brains of people with WS (15-17)-regions known to be involved in navigation (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23). Selective and severe impairment of the geometric representations used in reorientation among people with WS would provide evidence for neural localization, supporting the neural and functional specificity of the human reorientation system.…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

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Impaired geometric reorientation caused by genetic defect

Lakusta

Dessalegn

Landau

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

100

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The capacity to reorient in one's environment is a fundamental part of the spatial cognitive systems of both humans and nonhuman species. Abundant literature has shown that human adults and toddlers, rats, chicks, and fish accomplish reorientation through the construction and use of geometric representations of surrounding layouts, including the lengths of surfaces and their intersection. Does the development of this reorientation system rely on specific genes and their action in brain development? We tested reorientation in individuals who have Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic disorder that results in abnormalities of hippocampal and parietal areas of the brain known to be involved in reorientation. We found that in a rectangular chamber devoid of surface feature information, WS individuals do not use the geometry of the chamber to reorient, failing to find a hidden object. The failure among people with WS cannot be explained by more general deficits in visualspatial working memory, as the same individuals performed at ceiling in a similar task in which they were not disoriented. We also found that performance among people with WS improves in a rectangular chamber with one blue wall, suggesting that some individuals with WS can use the blue wall feature to locate the hidden object. These results show that the geometric system used for reorientation in humans can be selectively damaged by specific genetic and neural abnormalities in humans.geometric processing | neural specificity | Williams syndrome | navigation | spatial representations W hen rats, human toddlers, or adults are disoriented in a chamber, they search for targets using geometric properties of the layout, often ignoring quite salient nongeometric cues (1-5). This pattern has led scientists to hypothesize that reorientation in animals (including humans) is guided by a cognitive module that engages geometric properties of layouts such as the lengths of surfaces, the angles of their intersections, and geometric sense (i.e., "left-" and "right-ness"), but does not engage nongeometric information such as surface color (2-4). Others have argued against the idea of a geometric module, proposing instead a model in which reorientation is guided by a range of information available in the environment, including both geometric and nongeometric properties. In the latter model, cues are selected and used on the basis of their reliability over the organism's learning history (6, 7). Both views, however, acknowledge that geometric representations of layouts are privileged, playing a primary role in reorientation across a large range of species.This privileging of geometric representations in reorientation tasks resonates with the idea of domain specificity-one of the hallmarks of modular systems as proposed by Fodor (8). Other characteristic properties of modular systems include impenetrability, ontogenetic invariance, characteristic breakdown patterns and neural localization. Although much debate over the modularity of the geometric system that supports reorien...

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 53%

mentioning

confidence: 93%

Impaired geometric reorientation caused by genetic defect

Lakusta

Dessalegn

Landau

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

100

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“…However, in the Rose (1996, 1997) studies, a rectangular tank was used. In addition to the typical distal or extramaze room cues provided, the corners of a rectangular tank could act as proximal or local cues (Jones et al 2007). Mapping to local cues with geometric components can be sensitive to hippocampal damage (Pearce et al 2004;Jones et al 2007).…”

Section: Factors Contributing To Lack Of Concurrent Rem Sleep Deprivamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to the typical distal or extramaze room cues provided, the corners of a rectangular tank could act as proximal or local cues (Jones et al 2007). Mapping to local cues with geometric components can be sensitive to hippocampal damage (Pearce et al 2004;Jones et al 2007). While both proximal and distal cues together can form a spatial map (Collett et al 1986 Gothard et al 1996), reliance on proximal cues appears to be more difficult than using distal cues alone (Gothard et al 1996;Parron et al 2004).…”

Section: Factors Contributing To Lack Of Concurrent Rem Sleep Deprivamentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and reversal learning in the Morris water maze are largely resistant to six hours of REM sleep deprivation following training

Walsh

Booth²,

Poe³

2011

Learn. Mem.

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This first test of the role of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep in reversal spatial learning is also the first attempt to replicate a much cited pair of papers reporting that REM sleep deprivation impairs the consolidation of initial spatial learning in the Morris water maze. We hypothesized that REM sleep deprivation following training would impair both hippocampusdependent spatial learning and learning a new target location within a familiar environment: reversal learning. A 6-d protocol was divided into the initial spatial learning phase (3.5 d) immediately followed by the reversal phase (2.5 d). During the 6 h following four or 12 training trials/day of initial or reversal learning phases, REM sleep was eliminated and non-REM sleep left intact using the multiple inverted flowerpot method. Contrary to our hypotheses, REM sleep deprivation during four or 12 trials/day of initial spatial or reversal learning did not affect training performance. However, some probe trial measures indicated REM sleep-deprivation-associated impairment in initial spatial learning with four trials/ day and enhancement of subsequent reversal learning. In naive animals, REM sleep deprivation during normal initial spatial learning was followed by a lack of preference for the subsequent reversal platform location during the probe. Our findings contradict reports that REM sleep is essential for spatial learning in the Morris water maze and newly reveal that short periods of REM sleep deprivation do not impair concurrent reversal learning. Effects on subsequent reversal learning are consistent with the idea that REM sleep serves the consolidation of incompletely learned items.While it has been widely shown that both total sleep deprivation and sleep fragmentation impair learning, there remains much debate over the role of REM sleep deprivation for learning (for reviews, see Smith 1995;Hobson and Pace-Schott 2002;Vertes 2004;Rauchs et al. 2005;Stickgold and Walker 2005;Vertes and Siegel 2005). Increases in REM sleep have been described following learning (e.g., Lucero 1970;Hennevin et al. 1971;Leconte and Hennevin 1971;Fishbein et al. 1974;Smith et al. 1980;Smith and Butler 1982;Smith and Lapp 1986;Portell-Cortes et al. 1989;Smith and Wong 1991;Bramham et al. 1994;Smith and Rose 1997;Mavanji and Datta 2003) that imply a functional relationship. Some studies suggest that REM sleep is tightly linked with specific types of learning such as spatial learning (e

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“…In a similar task, Lubyk and Spetch (2011) found no effect of training angle in pigeons: Pigeons weighted angles more heavily than relative wall lengths whether they had been trained to locate acute or obtuse corners. Finally, Jones, Pearce, Davies, Good, and McGregor (2007) demonstrated that rats can use angular amplitudes or wall length relationships to orient in a kite-shaped arena.…”

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confidence: 99%

Geometric orientation by humans: angles weigh in

2012

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Human participants were trained to navigate to two geometrically equivalent corners of a parallelogramshaped virtual environment. The unique shape of the environment combined three distinct types of geometric information that could be used in combination or in isolation to orient and locate the goals: the angular amplitudes of the corners, the relative wall length relationships, and the principal axis of symmetry. In testing, participants were placed in manipulated versions of the training environment that tested which types of geometry they had encoded and how angular information weighed in against the other two geometric properties. The test environments were (a) a rectangular environment that removed the angular information, (b) a rhombic environment that removed wall length information and drastically reduced the principal axis, and (c) a reverse-parallelogram-shaped environment that placed angular information against both wall length and principal axis information. Participants chose accurately in the rectangular and rhombus environments, despite the removal of one of the cues. In the conflict test, participants preferred corners with the correct angular amplitudes over corners that were correct according to both wall length relationships and the principal axis. These results are comparable to recent findings with pigeons and suggest that angles are a salient orientation cue for humans.

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Impaired processing of local geometric features during navigation in a water maze following hippocampal lesions in rats.

Cited by 34 publications

References 35 publications

Impaired geometric reorientation caused by genetic defect

Impaired geometric reorientation caused by genetic defect

Spatial and reversal learning in the Morris water maze are largely resistant to six hours of REM sleep deprivation following training

Geometric orientation by humans: angles weigh in

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