Emergence of Maps in the Memories of Blind Navigation Agents

Decades of research into intelligent animal navigation posits that organisms build and maintain internal spatial representations (or maps) 1 of their environment, that enables the organism to determine and follow task-appropriate paths (Epstein, Patai, Julian, O'keefe Tollman, 1948). Hamsters, wolves, chimpanzees, and bats leverage prior exploration to determine and follow shortcuts they may never have taken before (Chapuis Harten, Katz, Goldshtein, Handel, Menzel, 1973; Peters, 1976; Toledo et al., 2020). Even blind mole rats and animals rendered situationally-blind in dark environments demonstrate shortcut behaviors (Avni, Tzvaigrach, Kimchi, Etienne, Maaswinkel Cruse & Wehner, 2011).