Campus Contact Information Departmental Area(s): Change, Plasticity & Development; Cognition, Brain & Behavior; Behavioral Neuroscience Lab: The Jacobs Cog-Evo-Devo Lab Interests: Cognitive and brain evolution, adaptive patterns in spatial memory, spatial navigation, cognitive sex differences and decision making

Our goal is to understand how cognition evolves. To do this, we study spatial cognition, a critical cognitive trait: all mobile animals must track resources, such as mates, food and competitors, in time and space. Using a Cog-Evo-Devo framework, we both compare cognition across species and identify differences within species, such as sex and developmental differences. Understanding spatial cognition addresses not only how brains encode a representation of the physical world but also suggests how such representations are exadapted into more complex thought processes, such as reasoning and language.

To understand spatial orientation, we have developed a theoretical framework, the parallel map theory, derived from an analysis of the evolution of hippocampal function (Jacobs & 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 and a unified theory to understand species, sex and developmental changes in spatial orientation. Recently, we have used PMT to direct our research on cognitive sex differences, finding similar patterns in frame of reference and cue use across rodent species and humans. Recasting sex differences as the preferential use of parallel maps is a powerful tool for analyzing the cognitive and neural mechanisms of spatial orientation in mammals.  

Current Research
We compare species that have recently diverged and also species who are solving the same problem with convergent mechanisms. In the past we have studied gray, fox and flying tree squirrels, voles and kangaroo rats, in the field as well as the lab, and have recently moved into comparative studies of domesticated species, such as laboratory mice, Mongolian gerbils and pet dogs, humans and robots.  

Representative Publications

Jacobs, L.F., and Schenk, F. (2003). Unpacking the cognitive map:  the parallel map theory of hippocampal function. Psychological Review 110, 285-315.
                  
Barkley, C.L., and Jacobs, L.F. (2007). Sex and species differences in spatial memory in food-storing kangaroo rats. Animal Behaviour 73, 321-329.

Waisman, A.S., and Jacobs, L.F. (2008). Flexibility of cue use in the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger). Animal Cognition 11, 625-636.

Bettis, T.J., and Jacobs, L.F. (2009). Sex-specific strategies in spatial orientation in C57BL/6J mice. Behavioural Processes 82, 249-255.

Chai, X.J., and Jacobs, L.F. (2009). Sex differences in directional cue use in a virtual landscape. Behavioral Neuroscience 123, 276-283.

Jacobs, L.F. (2009). The role of social selection in the evolution of hippocampal specialization. In Cognitive Biology: Evolutionary and Developmental Perspectives on Mind, Brain and Behavior, L. Tomassi, L. Nadel, and M. Peterson, eds. (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press).

Preston, S.D., and Jacobs, L.F. (2009). Mechanisms of cache decision making in fox squirrels (Sciurus niger). Journal of Mammalogy 90, 787-795.

Chai, X.J., and Jacobs, L.F. (2010). Effects of cue types on sex differences in human spatial memory. Behavioural Brain Research 208, 336-342.