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

  • 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