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Lucia Jacobs Associate Professor Ph.D., Princeton University
The goal of the research in our lab is to understand how brains evolve to create representations of the external world and how such representations are adapted by further evolutionary processes to create complex thought. We study a range of cognitive processes - from the concrete (i.e., how to get home) to the abstract (i.e., recognizing causal relationships). We study many species solving similar problems: laboratory mice, fox and flying squirrels, kangaroo rats, voles and most recently, pet dogs and humans. We compare species that have recently diverged and also species who are solving the same problem with convergent mechanisms. What often ties our behavioral studies together is the brain structure they have in common, the hippocampus. We address hippocampal function using a range of noninvasive techniques, such as comparative studies of naturally occurring sex, species and seasonal differences as well as fMRI imaging of humans navigating in virtual environments. We often study non-captive animals and have developed new methods to study cognition and behavior in free-ranging deer mice, voles, tree squirrels, volunteer pet dogs and undergraduate humans. Current projects We have developed a model of spatial orientation that is derived from the evolution of modes of orientation in vertebrates, the parallel map theory of hippocampal function (Jacobs and Schenk, 2003). Here we have proposed that the mammalian hippocampus creates dual, parallel spatial representations that are anatomically and functionally dissociable. Because of map independence, spatial orientation can be rescued when one map is impaired. This model also provides the neural basis for the classical map and compass theory of spatial orientation in vertebrates. Our current research is focused on the use of cue classes by mice, squirrels, dogs and humans: for example, how tree squirrels use one, two or three classes of cues to orient to a location and what factors determine their flexible strategy. We are also engaged in comparative studies of sex differences in spatial orientation in kangaroo rats, lab mice and humans, to determine how females and males are similar or different in their pattern of cue use and spatial orientation and, in the case of humans, how these differences are related to patterns of hippocampal activation, using high-resolution fMRI. Representative Publications Chai, X. J. & Jacobs, L. F. (In review). Sex differences in directional cue use in a virtual landscape. Bettis, T. & Jacobs, L. F. (In review). Sex-specific strategies in
spatial orientation in C57BL/6J mice.
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