A Spatial Cognitive Model that Integrates the Effects of Endogenous and Exogenous Information on the Hippocampus and Striatum

Abstract

Reproducing the spatial cognition of animals using computational models that make agents navigate autonomously has attracted much attention. Many biologically inspired models for spatial cognition focus mainly on the simulation of the hippocampus and only consider the effect of external environmental information (i.e., exogenous information) on the hippocampal coding. However, neurophysiological studies have shown that the striatum, which is closely related to the hippocampus, also plays an important role in spatial cognition and that information inside animals (i.e., endogenous information) also affects the encoding of the hippocampus. Inspired by the progress made in neurophysiological studies, we propose a new spatial cognitive model that consists of analogies between the hippocampus and striatum. This model takes into consideration how both exogenous and endogenous information affects coding by the environment. We carried out a series of navigation experiments that simulated a water maze and compared our model with other models. Our model is self-adaptable and robust and has better performance in navigation path length. We also discuss the possible reasons for the results and how our findings may help us understand real mechanisms in the spatial cognition of animals.