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

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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.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61773027 and 62076014), National Key Research and Development Program Project (No. 2020YFB1005903), and Industrial Internet Innovation and Development Project (No. 135060009002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Jing Huang, He-Yuan Yang, Xiao-Gang Ruan, Nai-Gong Yu, Guo-Yu Zuo & Hao-Meng Liu

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Computational Intelligence and Intelligence System, Beijing, 100124, China

    Jing Huang, He-Yuan Yang, Xiao-Gang Ruan, Nai-Gong Yu, Guo-Yu Zuo & Hao-Meng Liu

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  1. Jing Huang
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Recommended by Associate Editor Bin Luo

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Jing Huang received the Ph. D. degree in pattern recognition and intelligent system from Beijing University of Technology, China in 2016. Now she is an associate professor in Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, China.

Her research interests include cognitive robotics, machine learning, and artificial Intelligence.

He-Yuan Yang received the B. Sc. degree in automation from North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power (NCWU), China in 2019. He is currently a master student in control science and engineering at Faculty of Information Technology of Beijing University of Technology, China.

His research interest is cognitive robotics.

Xiao-Gang Ruan received the Ph. D. degree in control science and engineering from Zhejiang University, China in 1992. Now he is a professor of Beijing University of Technology, and he is also as a director of Institute of Artificial Intelligent and Robots (IAIR).

His research interests include automatic control, artificial intelligence, and intelligent robot.

Nai-Gong Yu received the B. Eng. degree in information processing display and recognition from Harbin Institute of Technology, China in 1989, the M. Eng. degree in control science and engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China in 1996, and the Ph. D. degree in pattern recognition and intelligent systems from Beijing University of Technology, China in 2005. He worked as a visiting scholar in University of Alberta, Canada in 2011. He is currently a professor with Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, China.

His research interests include computational intelligence, intelligent systems and robotics.

Guo-Yu Zuo received the Ph. D. degree in cybernetics from Beijing University of Technology, China in 2005. He is currently an associate professor and head of Intelligent Robot Laboratory of Beijing University of Technology, China. He has published over 50 journal and conference articles and achieved over 20 Chinese patents in artificial intelligence and robotics. His research interests include computational intelligence, robot learning, robot control, and human-robot interaction.

Hao-Meng Liu received the B. Sc. degree in computer science and technology from Beijing University of Technology (BJUT), China in 2019. He is currently a master student in control engineering at Faculty of Information Technology of Beijing University of Technology, China.

His research interest is industrial big data.

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Huang, J., Yang, HY., Ruan, XG. et al. A Spatial Cognitive Model that Integrates the Effects of Endogenous and Exogenous Information on the Hippocampus and Striatum. Int. J. Autom. Comput. 18, 632–644 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11633-021-1286-z

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