Navigating with fingers and feet: Analysis of human (Homo sapiens) and rat (Rattus norvegicus) movement organization during nonvisual spatial tasks.

Abstract

The current set of studies examines the contribution of movement segmentation to self-movement cue processing for estimating direction and distance to a start location in humans and rats. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the extent that ambulatory dead reckoning tasks can be adapted to the manipulatory scale in humans. Experiments 3 and 4 investigated the performance of rats in similar tasks at their ambulatory scale. Movement segmentation had differential effects on absolute heading error for humans and rats when only comparing performance on specific tasks; however, movement segmentation had similar effects for both species when performance was examined across all tasks. In general, magnitude of movement segmentation was associated with absolute heading error in both humans and rats. In contrast, both species modified homeward segment kinematics based on the distance to the start location in all tasks, consistent with the use of self-movement cues to estimate distance. The current study provides evidence for a role of movement segmentation in processing self-movement cues selective to direction estimation and develops a foundation for future studies investigating the neurobiology of spatial orientation.