Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network

Christian F. Doeller (), Caswell Barry and Neil Burgess ()
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Christian F. Doeller: UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Caswell Barry: UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Neil Burgess: UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

Nature, 2010, vol. 463, issue 7281, 657-661

Abstract: On the grid for the rat race The discovery by Edvard Moser and colleagues that rats and mice possess an orientation map of their surroundings, produced and updated by a network of cerebral cortex neurons known as 'grid cells' was one of the most exciting neuroscientific findings in recent years. These cells provide a strikingly periodic representation of self-location. The question naturally arises, does a similar mechanism operate in humans? The answer is provided in a paper by Christian Doeller, Caswell Barry and Neil Burgess in which single-unit recordings of grid cells in freely moving rats were combined with whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans navigating within virtual environments. Doeller et al. were able to detect a macroscopic fMRI signal representing a subject's position in a virtual reality environment that met the criteria for defining grid-cell encoding. Thus, humans appear to represent position and support spatial cognition in a manner very like that used by rodents.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08704

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