A Computational Model for a Multi-Goal Spatial Navigation Task inspired by Rodent Studies

We present a biologically-inspired computational model of the rodent hippocampus based on recent studies of the hippocampus showing that its longitudinal axis is involved in complex spatial navigation. While both poles of the hippocampus, i.e. septal (dorsal) and temporal (ventral), encode spatial information; the septal area has traditionally been attributed more to navigation and action selection; whereas the temporal pole has been more involved with learning and motivation. In this work we hypothesize that the septal-temporal organization of the hippocampus axis also provides a multi-scale spatial representation that may be exploited during complex rodent navigation. To test this hypothesis, we developed a multi-scale model of the hippocampus evaluated it with a simulated rat on a multi-goal task, initially in a simplified environment, and then on a more complex environment where multiple obstacles are introduced. In addition to the hippocampus providing a spatial representation of the environment, the model includes an actor-critic framework for the motivated learning of the different tasks.