Rodent spatial navigation: at the crossroads of cognition and movement

Tasks that measure spatial learning and navigation have become central to contemporary research programs concerned with identifying the neurobiological bases of learning and memory. Although the past three decades have seen an explosion of research reports on rodent navigation, only a small proportion of this research has been directly aimed at identifying the constituent psychological and behavioral processes involved in navigation. Such efforts are critical for establishing a complete neuroscientific explanation of spatial behavior and navigation, however, the majority of these research efforts have focused on identifying a single behavioral dissociation (e.g. place learning vs cued navigation). Experimental comparisons limited to only two possible alternatives can lead to erroneous or otherwise incomplete conclusions regarding how animals navigate. Because multiple sources of information may come to bear on an animal's behavior in spatial tasks, consideration of these sources and their interaction may avoid certain pitfalls inherent in the single dissociation approach. We offer a descriptive model of rodent navigation which includes three important dimensions: reference frame, information, and movement control. A variety of extant behavioral and neurophysiological data that support the basic utility of this conceptual framework are discussed.