The Jacobs Lab of Cognitive Biology
other bodies, other minds
Cognition is a biological trait, adapted to an ecological niche. We study that universal of universals: spatial orientation. We want to know how spatial cognitive traits adapt and evolve in response to the challenges of age, gender and species.
SQUIRRELS and SPACE. Tree squirrels must survive and reproduce in their challenging arboreal environment. Scatter hoarding species must also create huge cache maps afresh each autumn, burying thousands of nuts for their winter survival (Robin & Jacobs 2022b). We study spatial orientation, spatial memory and decision making in free-ranging adult fox squirrels on the Berkeley campus and captive juveniles, orphans being raised in wildlife rescue centers. With a team of high school and graduate students, supervised by Berkeley professor of engineering Alex Bayen, we developed an electronic “eNut” to measure acquisition of nut opening skills in juvenile squirrels (Chauhan et al. 2024).
From Lucia’s dissertation research at Princeton on spatial memory in gray squirrels (see picture of youngster below), the program evolved to study species and/or sex differences in spatial memory in kangaroo rats, voles, lab mice and humans.
SMELLS AND SPACE. Individual differences in space use led to the discovery of the same individual differences in the hippocampus. This led to “unpacking the cognitive map”, when Jacobs & Schenk (2003) proposed the parallel map theory, a new hypothesis of hippocampal function based on navigating not only to landmarks but also to gradients, e.g., odor plumes.
This led further to the olfactory spatial hypothesis: olfaction cannot be understood apart from its role in navigation (Jacobs, 2012) and navigation by the hippocampus cannot be understood apart from olfaction (Jacobs, 2022a).
The PROUST hypothesis – perceiving and reconstructing odor utility in space and time – reframes olfactory cognition as embodied, embedded, enacted, extended and evolved (Jacobs, 2023).
Finally, the ‘hippocompass system’ — the spatial function of limbic components — has contributed to the insight that natural odor landscapes play a critical therapeutic role in human physical and mental health (Bratman et al. 2024).
Research





News
PBS takes another Deep Look…
This time creating a great overview of our research on search dogs, with a featured performance by Zinka, co-starring Shay Cook.
The olfactory spatial hypothesis: new evidence from humans
Veronique Bohbot’s study of the association between spatial ability and olfactory ability in humans is reviewed in this article in The Scientist.
The navigational nose
Published today – Lucia’s new hypothesis for the function and evolution of the human external nose.
Rocky is…pink
Truth is stranger than fiction – flying squirrels (like Rocky) glow bright pink under UV light! A valentine squirrel…
Squirrels and Alzheimer’s? Read on…
What can squirrels tell us about human brain plasticity? Well, not much, lacking verbal language, but Lucia speculates, in a conversation with Colleen Walsh of the Gazette.
Squirrel Appreciation Day!
Not just Martin Luther King, Jr. Day…but a special day for squirrels as well.
Jiwan: From squirrels to international awards for his pastry!
Now a graduate student in neuroscience at in San Diego, Jiwan’s passion for pastry (which WE knew about) has now led him to a television appearance and award!
Judy shows that geckos walk on water
From the New York Times today, a great write-up of Judy's work that she started as a student project in Bob Full's amazing class on biomechanics!"Dr. Nirody, who will start research at Rockefeller University this coming year, and Judy Jinn, were graduate...
“A Squirrel’s Guide to Success”
The BBC doc on our squirrels airs on PBS
J Neurosci: Algorithms of olfactory navigation
Great review by Ideas Lab collaborators.

CONTACT
Lucia Jacobs
Department of Psychology, University of California
2121 Berkeley Way West
Berkeley, CA 94720-1650
squirrel@berkeley.edu
