We investigated how access to the vertical dimension influences the natural exploratory and foraging behaviour of rats. Using high-accuracy three-dimensional tracking of position in two- and three-dimensional environments, we sought to determine (i) how rats navigated through the environments with respect to gravity, (ii) where rats chose to form their home bases in volumetric space, and (iii) how they navigated to and from these home bases. To evaluate how horizontal biases may affect these behaviours, we compared a 3D maze where animals preferred to move horizontally to a different 3D configuration where all axes were equally energetically costly to traverse. Additionally, we compared home base formation in two-dimensional arenas with and without walls to the three-dimensional climbing mazes. We report that many behaviours exhibited by rats in horizontal spaces naturally extend to fully volumetric ones, such as home base formation and foraging excursions. We also provide further evidence for the strong differentiation of the horizontal and vertical axes: rats showed a horizontal movement bias, they formed home bases mainly in the bottom layers of both mazes and they generally solved the vertical component of return trajectories before and faster than the horizontal component. We explain the bias towards horizontal movements in terms of energy conservation, while the locations of home bases are explained from an information gathering view as a method for correcting self-localisation.

我们调查了垂直方向的访问方式如何影响大鼠的自然探索和觅食行为。我们使用二维和三维环境中的位置的高精度三维跟踪，我们试图确定（i）老鼠如何通过重力导航通过环境，（ii）老鼠选择在其体积中形成自己的基地空间，以及（iii）他们如何往返于这些家庭基地。为了评估水平偏向如何影响这些行为，我们比较了3D迷宫，其中动物倾向于水平移动到不同的3D构造，在该3D构造中，所有轴的移动能量消耗都相同。此外，我们将带有和不带有墙的二维竞技场中的家庭基地形成与三维攀爬迷宫进行了比较。我们报告说，大鼠在水平空间中表现出的许多行为自然会扩展到完全容积的行为，例如本垒形成和觅食游览。我们还为水平轴和垂直轴的强区分提供了进一步的证据：大鼠表现出水平运动偏差，它们主要在两个迷宫的底层形成了本垒，并且通常在返回轨迹之前和之后都解决了返回轨迹的垂直分量。水平分量。我们从节能的角度解释了水平运动的偏向，而基地的位置则是从信息收集的角度来解释的，这是一种纠正自我定位的方法。我们还为水平轴和垂直轴的强区分提供了进一步的证据：大鼠表现出水平运动偏差，它们主要在两个迷宫的底层形成了本垒，并且通常在返回轨迹之前和之后都解决了返回轨迹的垂直分量。水平分量。我们从节能的角度解释了水平运动的偏向，而基地的位置则是从信息收集的角度来解释的，这是一种纠正自我定位的方法。我们还为水平轴和垂直轴的强区分提供了进一步的证据：大鼠表现出水平运动偏差，它们主要在两个迷宫的底层形成了本垒，并且通常在返回轨迹之前和之后都解决了返回轨迹的垂直分量。水平分量。我们从节能的角度解释了水平运动的偏向，而基地的位置则是从信息收集的角度来解释的，这是一种纠正自我定位的方法。