Neuronal mechanisms underlying the interaction between visual landmarks and path integration in the rat
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Updated: Nov 4, 2026

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Automated Visual Cognitive Tasks for Recording Neural Activity Using a Floor Projection Maze
Published on: February 20, 2014
Abstract:
Place- and direction-specific firing properties of hippocampal and thalamic neurons are not strongly tied to visual landmarks when a rat is disoriented. These results suggest that rats rely more on path integration mechanisms than on landmarks, until they have learned that the landmarks are stable directional references.
Related Concept Videos
Visual System
Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
Vision
Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

