Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network

By Christian F. Doeller, C. Barry, Neil Burgess. Nature, 2010

769 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex of freely moving rats provide a strikingly periodic representation of self-location which is indicative of very specific computational mechanisms. However, the existence of grid cells in humans and their distribution throughout the brain are unknown. Here we show that the preferred firing directions of directionally modulated grid cells in rat entorhinal cortex are aligned with the grids, and that the spatial organization of grid-cell firing is more strongly apparent at faster than slower running speeds. Because the grids are also aligned with each other, we predicted a macroscopic signal visible to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans. We then looked for this signal as participants explored a virtual reality environment, mimicking the rats’ foraging task: fMRI activation and adaptation showing a speed-modulated six-fold rotational symmetry in running direction. The signal was found in a network of entorhinal/subicular, posterior and medial parietal, lateral temporal and medial prefrontal areas. The effect was strongest in right entorhinal cortex, and the coherence of the directional signal across entorhinal cortex correlated with spatial memory performance. Our study illustrates the potential power of combining single-unit electrophysiology with fMRI in systems neuroscience. Our results provide evidence for grid-cell-like representations in humans, and implicate a specific type of neural representation in a network of regions which supports spatial cognition and also autobiographical memory.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2495e0b51367beb828d68abbd00999b4bcdf3c44

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Citations in the corpus

A new neural framework for visuospatial processing (2011, background): “One recent study has also reported that the response of the posterior parietal cortex during navigation of a virtual environment may be consistent with a representation of absolute distance 106 .”
Organizing Conceptual Knowledge in Humans with a Grid-like Code (2016, methodology): “We designed a task analogous to the one used for navigation in physical space(9), with the notable difference that our dimensions were organized in an abstract, rather than physical, space.”
If deep learning is the answer, what is the question? (2020, positive): “Nevertheless, inventive new ways of using these tools are being developed, allowing researchers to probe replay 86–88 , changes in excitatory–inhibitory balance 89,90 and hexagonal (grid) coding 91,92 in human brain signals.”
A pathophysiological framework of hippocampal dysfunction in ageing and disease (2011, background): “A recent human fMRI study described a cognitive task based on predictions extracted from grid-cell properties, and showed that this task activated the entorhinal corte”
Sequential Replay of Non-spatial Task States in the Human Hippocampus (2018, result): “Of particular interest are investigations asking whether neural populations in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex share a common neural code for abstract task states with orbitofrontal (7) and medial prefrontal regions (43), as suggestedby recent studies (38, 44, 45).”
A model of grid cell development through spatial exploration and spike time-dependent plasticity. (2014, neutral): “I I -45 -12 30 0 80 0 80 200 0 neuron 200 80 0 80 0 0 200 0 0 80 80 0 neuron neuron 100 0 200 0 neuron neuron 0 10 20 200 0”
Navigating cognition: Spatial codes for human thinking (2018, background): “preferred directions of these cells align with the axes of the cells’ grid pattern (22).”
Dark, Beyond Deep: A Paradigm Shift to Cognitive AI with Humanlike Common Sense (2020, background): “[58] Christian F Doeller, Caswell Barry, Neil Burgess, Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network, Nature 463 (7281) (2010) 657.”
Natural Number and Natural Geometry (2011, background): “New research using neuroimaging methods provides indirect evidence for place and grid cells in humans as well, activated when humans learn object locations in a virtual environment in relation to extended surface boundaries ([74]; Burgess, Chapter 5 in this volume).”