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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $787.50

Format:
Hardback
350 pp.
numerous figures, 168 mm x 240 mm

ISBN-13:
9780198515241

Publication date:
January 2004

Imprint: OUP UK


The Neurobiology of Spatial Behaviour

Edited by K.J. Jeffery

This book explores the relationship between cellular processes and animal behaviour. It does this by focusing on the domain of navigation, bringing together scientists from either side of the brain-behaviour divide in an attempt to explain the linkage between spatial behaviour and the underlying activity of neurons.

The Neurobiology of Spatial Behaviour is organised into two sections. Section one deals with the so-called 'higher' levels of description - studies of spatial behaviour and the brain areas that might underlie such behaviour. The section begins with insects, remarkably sophisticated navigators, and ends with humans, examining along the way issues such as whether animal brains contain maps and whether spatial and non-spatial information interact, and if so, how? Section two delves further into the brain and focuses on the mammalian representation of space and the role of place cells.

These issues have far wider ramifications that simply helping us to understand the process of navigation. This system might provide a model for how other forms of knowledge, beliefs and intentions are encoded in neurons. As such, the book will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience, including ethologists, psychologists, behavioural neuroscientists, computational modellers, physiological neuroscientists and molecular biologists.

Readership : Neuroscientists, neurobiologists, cognitive psychologists, ethologists, neuropsychologists and physiologists.

Preface
Part 1: From Behaviour to Circuitry: Introduction
1. R Wehner and M V Srinivasan: Path integration in insects
2. D Wallace et al: A role for the hippocampus in dead reckoning: an ethological analysis using natural exploratory and food-carrying tasks
3. A S Etienne: How does path integration interact with olfaction, vision and the representation of space?
4. T S Collett et al: Contextual cues and insect navigation
5. B J Wiltgen and M S Fanselow: A model of hippocampal-cortical-amygdala interactions based on contextual fear conditioning
6. S Healy et al: Do animals use maps?
7. R F Wang and E S Spelke: Comparative approaches to human navigation
8. T Hartley et al: Studies of the neural basis of human navigation and memory
Part 2: From Circuits to Cells: Introduction
9. Dudchenko: The head direction system and navigation
10. B Poucet et al: Drawing parallels between the behavioural and neural properties of navigation
11. C Lever et al: Spatial coding in the hippocampal formation: input, information type, plasticity and behaviour
12. J J Knierim: Hippocampal remapping: implications for spatial learning and navigation
13. A A Fenton and J Bures: Navigation in the moving world
14. R Biegler: Reading cognitive and other maps: how to avoid getting buried in thought
15. M I Anderson et al: The representation of spatial context
16. E R Wood: Place cells: a framework for episodic memory

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

K.J. Jeffery is at Department of Psychology, University College London, UK.

There are no related titles available at this time.

Special Features

  • Describes the process of navigation in terms of the underlying brain circuitry and cellular activity
  • Provides a model for understanding the encoding of knowledge in the brain
  • With contributions from a top-flight, international author team from across the brain-behaviour divide
  • Describes navigation in a variety of species