Year: 2021
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The hippocampus is a key region for forming a mental map of our environment.To be useful for guiding navigation, such a map requires a representation of distances between landmarks, which can be used for flexibly computing relationships that have never been directly experienced.Here, we let participants perform an object-location task in a large-scale virtual environment and combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with representational similarity analysis to test how Euclidean and path distances between objects affect their neural similarity in the hippocampus.We found evidence that the left hippocampus forms a cognitive map that integrates Euclidean and path distances.One key characteristic of cognitive maps is their adaptive and flexible nature.We therefore let participants perform another object-location task in the same virtual environment.Importantly, here we changed the path distance between objects by relocating roadblocks in the environment.We found that hippocampal maps of response learners (i.e.people who navigate based on remembered sequences of egocentric turns) adapted as a function of these changes in path distance.Taken together, our study supports the idea that the hippocampus can create integrative and flexible cognitive maps of our world.
Author: Haas, A.N. de
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7011591822