Neural correlates of place learning in the cane toad, Rhinella marina
Learning locations by integrating external reference points, or place learning, is a form of navigation strongly associated with the mammalian hippocampus and its homologs in other vertebrates. In contrast, cue learning relies on individual environmental features and can occur independently of the hippocampus. Despite growing interest in amphibian spatial cognition and association of spatial…
Neural correlates of place learning have been investigated in the cane toad, Rhinella marina, a species previously associated with the mammalian hippocampus for its role in spatial cognition. Researchers designed a four-arm maze to assess place, cue, and turn-direction learning in these amphibians, pairing maze trials with visualization of brain activity through pS6 immunohistochemistry.
The toads demonstrated significant improvement over time solely in the place task, while exhibiting consistently faster exit times in the cue task. When analyzing brain activity, place task toads displayed elevated activity only in the dorsal and lateral palliums. These findings reveal that amphibians can acquire spatial navigation strategies through distinct behavioral paradigms, shedding light on the diverse pallial contributions underlying vertebrate spatial cognition.
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