What's driving the brain's internal GPS?
Using implantable electrodes and a first-person driving game, researchers have identified the brain cells that indicate travel in a clockwise or counterclockwise motion, called “path cells.” By representing direction, these path cells complement other similar cells that encode location. Working together, the cells help people get to where they're going.
“Finding our way in spatial environments is an essential part of daily life,” says Michael Kahana, psychology professor and director of the Computational Memory Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. “Our goal in this research was to determine how the brain comes to possess this sense.”
Full story at Futurity.
Photo credit: University of Pennsylvania
