5 research outputs found
The cognitive map in humans: spatial navigation and beyond
The ‘cognitive map’ hypothesis proposes that brain builds a unified representation of the
spatial environment to support memory and guide future action. Forty years of
electrophysiological research in rodents suggests that cognitive maps are neurally
instantiated by place, grid, border, and head direction cells in the hippocampal formation
and related structures. Here we review recent work that suggests a similar functional
organization in the human brain and reveals novel insights into how cognitive maps are
used during spatial navigation. Specifically, these studies indicate that: (i) the human
hippocampus and entorhinal cortex support map-like spatial codes; (ii) posterior brain
regions such as parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortices provide critical inputs that
allow cognitive maps to be anchored to fixed environmental landmarks; (iii) hippocampal
and entorhinal spatial codes are used in conjunction with frontal lobe mechanisms to plan
routes during navigation. We also discuss how these three basic elements of cognitive
map based navigation—spatial coding, landmark anchoring, and route planning—might
be applied to non-spatial domains to provide the building blocks for many core elements
of human thought