Anchoring the neural compass: coding of local spatial reference frames in human medial parietal lobe

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 17; no. 11; pp. 1598 - 1606
• Main Authors: Marchette, Steven A, Vass, Lindsay K, Ryan, Jack, Epstein, Russell A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.11.2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 59; 59/36; 631/378/2629/2630; 631/378/2649; Adolescent; Adult; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedicine; Brain Mapping; Codes; Compasses; Female; Geometry; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Learning - physiology; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical examination; Mental Recall - physiology; Methods; Museums; Neurobiology; Neurosciences; Orientation - physiology; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Parietal lobes; Psychological aspects; Space perception; Space Perception - physiology; Spatial Behavior - physiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/nn.3834

Although head direction cells are known to encode information related to an organism's heading, it is unclear how the brain integrates this with information provided by fixed environmental features. In this study, the authors show that the retrosplenial complex is important for encoding heading and facing direction based on local landmarks and that this process generalizes across different environments that have similar geometry. The neural systems that code for location and facing direction during spatial navigation have been investigated extensively; however, the mechanisms by which these quantities are referenced to external features of the world are not well understood. To address this issue, we examined behavioral priming and functional magnetic resonance imaging activity patterns while human subjects recalled spatial views from a recently learned virtual environment. Behavioral results indicated that imagined location and facing direction were represented during this task, and multivoxel pattern analyses indicated that the retrosplenial complex (RSC) was the anatomical locus of these spatial codes. Critically, in both cases, location and direction were defined on the basis of fixed elements of the local environment and generalized across geometrically similar local environments. These results suggest that RSC anchors internal spatial representations to local topographical features, thus allowing us to stay oriented while we navigate and retrieve from memory the experience of being in a particular place.