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If you have a map, you can know where you are without knowing which way you are facing. If you have a compass, you can know which way you're facing without knowing where you are. Animals from ants to mice to humans use both kinds of information to reorient themselves in familiar places, but how they determine this information from environmental cues is not well understood.
In a new study in mice, researchers have shown that these systems work independently. A cue that unambiguously provided both types of information allowed the mice to determine their location but not the direction they were facing.Image credit: University of Pennsylvania
