Landmark use by navigating rats (Rattus norvegicus):: Contrasting geometric and featural information

Place navigation in the rat is based on an allocentric localization process in which places are recognized in reference to the surrounding environment. However, the nature of the spatial information used for such a process remains unclear In particular, the relative importance of environmental geometry and of individual landmarks is still a matter of debate. This issue was addressed in rats (Rattus norvegicus, Long-Evans strain) by means of a water maze experiment in which the importance of the identity of landmarks and of their geometric arrangement were compared. Results showed that place navigation appears to be primarily based on the geometric arrangement of landmarks. These results are discussed in the more general context of the construction of spatial representations in rodents.