This work has been motivated by the desire to enhance our knowledge about specific cognitive requirements of navigation in multiple reference frames environments and to understand the roles of the hippocampus and posterior parietal cortex in this behavior. The main conclusions of this thesis are: (a) We have developed a novel behavioral test called the Enemy Avoidance Task. The initial set of experiments has shown that laboratory rats are able to plan their movement with respect to a to-be-avoided moving object. Behavioral performance in the task may be quantitatively evaluated. (b) The aforementioned ability is crucially dependent on the functional integrity of the dorsal hippocampus. To the contrary, functional inactivation of the dorsal hippocampi by local infusion of tetrodotoxin did not cause any impairment in the ability of the animal to estimate its distance from a non-moving object. The finding suggests a specific role of the hippocampus in dynamic cognitive processes required for flexible navigation strategies such as continuous updating of information about the position of a moving stimulus. These results are at odds with the two major theories of hippocampal function (Cognitive map theory and Declarative memory theory) and therefore suggest that revision of the theories is necessary. (c)...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:311555 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Telenský, Petr |
| Contributors | Bureš, Jan, Němec, Pavel, Otáhal, Jakub |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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