果冻影院

The study, published today in Cerebral Cortex, is the first to identify the specific brain regions used in guiding navigation of familiar places.

Researchers observed that a brain region long-known to be involved in new learning 鈥� the hippocampus 鈥� was involved in tracking distance to a destination in a 鈥榥ewly learned鈥� environment.

However, when navigating a familiar place, another brain region 鈥� the retrosplenial cortex 鈥� was found to 鈥渢ake over鈥� tracking the distance to the destination.

鈥淥ur findings are significant because they reveal that there are in fact two different parts of the brain that guide navigation,鈥� says Professor Hugo Spiers (果冻影院 Experimental Psychology), senior author on the study.

鈥淲hich part gets used depends on whether you are in a place you know well or a place you only visited recently. The results help to explain why damage to the retrosplenial cortex in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease is so debilitating, and why these patients get lost even in very familiar environments.鈥�

The research team worked with students from 果冻影院 and Imperial College London. The students鈥� brain activity was monitored as they navigated a simulation of their own familiar campus and the other university鈥檚 campus, which was 鈥榥ewly learned鈥� days before.

The researchers also explored the impact of Sat-Navs by having students navigate the campuses with directions overlaid on the route in front of them. Strikingly, neither the hippocampus nor retrosplenial cortex continued to track distance to the destination when using this Sat-Nav-like device.

鈥淲e wondered whether navigating a very familiar place would be similar to using a Sat-Nav, seeing as you don鈥檛 need to think as much about where you鈥檙e going in a familiar place,鈥� says Professor Spiers. 鈥淗owever, the results show this isn鈥檛 the case; the brain is more engaged in processing the space when you are using your memory.鈥�

鈥淭his has significant implications for ongoing research into Alzheimer鈥檚 disease,鈥� says Dr Zita Patai (果冻影院 Experimental Psychology), first author on the study. 鈥淪pecifically, how the deterioration of different brain regions contributes to fundamental behaviours such as memory and navigation, and how this changes over time.鈥�

The research was funded by the Wellcome Trust, James S. McDonnell Foundation, and the Canadian Institute of Health Research.

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Credit: Dr Zita Patai

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Tash Payne

Tel: +44 (0)203 108 9423

Email: tash.payne@ucl.ac.uk