S. Alyan et R. Jander, SHORT-RANGE HOMING IN THE HOUSE MOUSE, MUS MUSCULUS - STAGES IN THE LEARNING OF DIRECTIONS, Animal behaviour, 48(2), 1994, pp. 285-298
Female house mice readily learn to retrieve their pups 50 cm from the
centre of an open arena and take them to their nest outside the arena'
s periphery. Experimental manipulation to reveal the spatial-orientati
on constituents of this behaviour disclosed three submechanisms. Guide
d orientation, the direct response to objects. Path integration, the c
ontinuous monitoring of spatial displacements combined with computatio
n of the locomotor vector to the starting point of the path. Landmark
navigation, the movement by means of distal visual cues toward a goal
not directly perceived. Learning to home passes through three stages.
First, the exploring mouse is directly guided to objects of interest.
Second, the homing mouse adds path integration; that is, it keeps a ru
nning, integrated spatial record derived from locomotion. Finally (cir
cumstances permitting) the homing mouse links path integration with sp
atial references to distal visual landmarks. Sparse comparative eviden
ce from other species of rodents suggests that such a system of short-
range topographical orientation is universal among rodents.