Updating the path integrator through a visual fix

Mammals can navigate through path integration (dead reckoning) by updating their position on the basis of internal signals generated during locomotion, without using any external references. However, being open to cumulative errors, path integration remains functional over short excursions only, unless corrected by familiar landmarks. That such a corrective process may occur was examined in golden hamsters during hoarding excursions occurring in darkness, within a large open arena. The subjects proceeded from their peripheral nest to a feeding site on a platform. If the annuals were rotated during food pouching, their subsequent homing behavior was disoriented, self-generated positional information having been disrupted. By contrast, when the subjects were rotated at the food source and then briefly presented with the familiar visual environment, they returned homeward, albeit not very precisely. Thus, the animals may have taken an approximate positional fix or reset their internal compass only.