Have you ever wondered how we remember the directions and orient ourselves in the environment, the three-dimensional world around us. There is a neural compass that helps it.
Researchers have identified a pattern of brain activity that helps prevent us from getting lost, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
The study, conducted by a team from the University of Birmingham and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, has for the first time been able to pinpoint the location of an internal neural compass that the human brain uses to orient itself in space and navigate through the environment.
“Keeping track of the direction you are heading in is pretty important. Even small errors in estimating where you are and which direction you are heading in can be disastrous,” said Dr. Benjamin J. Griffiths, the first author of the study. “We know that animals such as birds, rats and bats have neural circuitry that keeps them on track, but we know surprisingly little about how the human brain manages this out and about in the real world.”
Brain
To overcome the challenge of measuring neural activity in humans while they are moving, the researchers used mobile EEG devices and motion capture technology. A group of 52 healthy participants took part in a series of motion-tracking experiments, while their brain activity was recorded via scalp EEG. Additionally, the researchers monitored signals from 10 participants who were already undergoing intracranial electrode monitoring for conditions such as epilepsy.
The tasks prompted the participants to move their heads or eyes, and the researchers were able to detect a finely tuned directional signal in the brain signals, which could be detected just before physical changes in head direction.
“Isolating these signals enables us to really focus on how the brain processes navigational information and how these signals work alongside other cues such as visual landmarks,” Dr. Griffiths explained. “Our approach has opened up new avenues for exploring these features, with implications for research into neurodegenerative diseases and even for improving navigational technologies in robotics and AI.”
The findings have significant implications for understanding diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, where navigation and orientation are often impaired.
In future work, the researchers plan to apply their learning to investigate how the brain navigates through time, to find out if similar neuronal activity is responsible for memory.
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