Boundary-anchored neural mechanisms of location-encoding for self and others

Matthias Stangl (), Uros Topalovic, Cory S. Inman, Sonja Hiller, Diane Villaroman, Zahra M. Aghajan, Leonardo Christov-Moore, Nicholas R. Hasulak, Vikram R. Rao, Casey H. Halpern, Dawn Eliashiv, Itzhak Fried and Nanthia Suthana ()
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Matthias Stangl: University of California Los Angeles
Uros Topalovic: University of California Los Angeles
Cory S. Inman: University of California Los Angeles
Sonja Hiller: University of California Los Angeles
Diane Villaroman: University of California Los Angeles
Zahra M. Aghajan: University of California Los Angeles
Leonardo Christov-Moore: University of Southern California
Nicholas R. Hasulak: NeuroPace Inc.
Vikram R. Rao: University of California San Francisco
Casey H. Halpern: School of Medicine, Stanford University
Dawn Eliashiv: University of California Los Angeles
Itzhak Fried: University of California Los Angeles
Nanthia Suthana: University of California Los Angeles

Nature, 2021, vol. 589, issue 7842, 420-425

Abstract: Abstract Everyday tasks in social settings require humans to encode neural representations of not only their own spatial location, but also the location of other individuals within an environment. At present, the vast majority of what is known about neural representations of space for self and others stems from research in rodents and other non-human animals1–3. However, it is largely unknown how the human brain represents the location of others, and how aspects of human cognition may affect these location-encoding mechanisms. To address these questions, we examined individuals with chronically implanted electrodes while they carried out real-world spatial navigation and observation tasks. We report boundary-anchored neural representations in the medial temporal lobe that are modulated by one’s own as well as another individual’s spatial location. These representations depend on one’s momentary cognitive state, and are strengthened when encoding of location is of higher behavioural relevance. Together, these results provide evidence for a common encoding mechanism in the human brain that represents the location of oneself and others in shared environments, and shed new light on the neural mechanisms that underlie spatial navigation and awareness of others in real-world scenarios.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03073-y

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