Vision for navigation
Even for rats and mice, whose vision is fairly poor, vision is tremendously important for navigation. This is because visual stimuli can be precisely localised inspace (unlike, say, olfaction) and vision can operate over great distances. This means that animals can see distant large landmarks for example - even the sun and stars.
For a long time I have been interested in how the brain inetgrates visual information with other kinds: particularly self-motion information, which is information about movement trhough space that arrives through the acceleration detectors in the inner ear (vestibular system) and gets combined with information about visual or tactile landmarks. The self-motion information is used to help interpret the visual scene, and familiar landmarks are used to reorient if self-motion detection went a little awry (as it easily does - think of what happens when walking around in the dark).
Relevant publications
Page, HJI and Jeffery, KJ (2018) Landmark-based updating of the head direction system by retrosplenial cortex: A computational model Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 12:191
Lozano Y, Page H, Jacob P-Y, Lomi E, Street J, Jeffery KJ (2017) Retrosplenial and postsubicular head direction cells compared during visual landmark discrimination Brain and Neuroscience Advances
Jacob P-Y J, Casali G, Spieser L, Overington DWU, Page H, Jeffery KJ (2017) An independent, landmark-dominated head direction signal in dysgranular retrosplenial cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 20, 173-175 doi: 10.1038/nn.4465 pdf supp
Jeffery KJ, Page H, Stringer S (2016) Optimal cue combination and landmark-stability learning in the head direction system. J Physiol, 594.22 pp 6527-6534 doi: 10.1113/JP272945 pdf
Marozzi E, Ginzberg L-L, Alenda A, Jeffery KJ (2015) Purely translational realignment in grid cells following non-metric context change. Cerebral Cortex, 25(11):4619-27 doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhv120 pdf
Saleem AB, Ayaz A, Jeffery KJ, Harris KD, Carandini M (2013) Integration of visual motion and locomotion in mouse visual cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 16(12):1864-9. doi: 10.1038/nn.3567 pdf
Knight R, Piette C, Page H, Walters D, Marozzi E, Nardini M, Stringer S, Jeffery KJ (2013) Weighted cue integration in the rodent head direction system. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (London), 369(1635):20120512 pdf supp
Page H, Walters D, Knight R, Piette C, Jeffery KJ, Stringer S (2013) A theoretical account of cue averaging in the rodent head direction system. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (London), 369(1635):20130283 pdf
Spiers HJ, Hayman RM, Jovalekic A, Marozzi E and Jeffery KJ (2013) Place field repetition and purely local remapping in a multi-compartment environment. Cerebral Cortex, 25(1):10-25.doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht198 pdf
Knight R, Hayman R, Ginzberg LL, and Jeffery, KJ (2011) Geometric cues influence head direction cells only weakly in non-disoriented rats. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(44):15681-92 pdf
Jeffery, KJ (2007) Do discrimination tasks discourage multi-dimensional stimulus processing? Evidence from a cross-modal object discrimination in rats. Behavioural Brain Research,183(2):213-21 pdf
Jeffery, KJ (2007) Integration of the sensory inputs to place cells: what, where, why and how. Hippocampus,17(9):775-85 pdf
Barry, C, Hayman, R, Burgess, N, Jeffery, KJ (2007) Experience-dependent rescaling of entorhinal grids. Nature Neuroscience, 10(6): 282-284 pdf
Anderson, MI, Killing, S, Morris, C, O’Donoghue, A, Onyiagha, DK, Stevenson, R, Verriotis, M, Jeffery, KJ (2006) Behavioral correlates of the population coding of spatial context. Hippocampus, 16: 730-742 pdf
Minini, L and Jeffery, KJ (2006) Do rats use shape to solve “shape discriminations”? Learning & Memory, 13(3):287-297 pdf
Etienne, AS and Jeffery, KJ (2004) Path integration in mammals. Hippocampus, 14: 180-192 pdf
Hayman, R, Chakraborty, S, Anderson, MI and Jeffery, KJ (2003) Context-specific acquisition of location discrimination by hippocampal place cells. European Journal of Neuroscience,18: 2825-2834. pdf
Jeffery, KJ and Anderson, MI (2003) Dissociation of the geometric and contextual influences on place cells. Hippocampus, 13: 868-872 pdf
Anderson, MI and Jeffery, KJ (2003) Heterogeneous modulation of place cell firing by changes in context. Journal of Neuroscience, 23: 8827-8835 pdf
Jeffery, KJ and O'Keefe, J (1999) Learned interaction of visual and idiothetic cues in the control of place field orientation. Experimental Brain Research 127: 151-161 pdf
Jeffery, KJ (1998) Learning of landmark stability and instability by hippocampal place cells. Neuropharmacology, 37: 677-687 pdf
Jeffery, KJ, Donnett, JG, Burgess, N and O’Keefe, JM (1997) Directional control of the orientation of hippocampal place fields. Experimental Brain Research, 117: 131-142 pdf