Summary: Connection Science
Vol. 17, Nos. 1­2, March­June 2005, 167­183
Competition between cue response and place response:
a model of rat navigation behaviour
RICARDO CHAVARRIAGA*, THOMAS STRÖSSLIN, DENIS SHEYNIKHOVICH
and WULFRAM GERSTNER
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), School of Computer and Communication
Sciences, and Brain Mind Institute, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Different neural systems are involved in animal navigation depending on the type of task. Experimental
studies support the idea that the hippocampus is necessary to learn a spatial representation required
to navigate toward hidden goals (place response), whereas the dorsolateral striatum is involved in
the learning of stimulus­response associations when navigating toward visible (or cued) goals. These
systems compete for action selection according to the characteristics of the task, previous experience
(e.g. training procedure) or endogenous factors. This paper reviews both experimental data on the
theory of multiple memory systems involved in navigation, and a recent computational model of
action selection based on the competition of place and cue responses learnt during training. The
model implements separately the two types of response, i.e. place response and stimulus response.
Furthermore, competition takes place to select which behaviour will actually be performed. The model
was tested in a simulated environment using a protocol analogous to those used in experiments with
animals.

Source: Arleo, Angelo - Laboratory of Neurobiology of Adaptive Processes, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Paris 6

Collections: Biology and Medicine