Remembering the past and imagining the future

By Patrick Byrne, Suzanna Becker, Neil Burgess. Psychology Review, 2007

974 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The neural mechanisms underlying spatial cognition are modelled, integrating neuronal, systems and behavioural data, and addressing the relationships between long-term memory, short-term memory and imagery, and between egocentric and allocentric and visual and idiothetic representations. Long-term spatial memory is modeled as attractor dynamics within medial-temporal allocentric representations, and short-term memory as egocentric parietal representations driven by perception, retrieval and imagery, and modulated by directed attention. Both encoding and retrieval/ imagery require translation between egocentric and allocentric representations, mediated by posterior parietal and retrosplenial areas and utilizing head direction representations in Papez’s circuit. Thus hippocampus effectively indexes information by real or imagined location, while Papez’s circuit translates to imagery or from perception according to the direction of view. Modulation of this translation by motor efference allows “spatial updating” of representations, while prefrontal simulated motor efference allows mental exploration. The alternating temporo-parietal flows of information are organized by the theta rhythm. Simulations demonstrate the retrieval and updating of familiar spatial scenes, hemispatial neglect in memory, and the effects on hippocampal place cell firing of lesioned head direction representations and of conflicting visual and ideothetic inputs.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a931718587b83f5b965427ab48b48d819bb74422

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Citations in the corpus

Intrusive Images in Psychological Disorders (2010, methodology): “The conclusions are then integrated into a revised and expanded version of the dual representation theory of PTSD (Brewin, 2001, 2003; Brewin, Dalgleish, & Joseph, 1996) that draws on recent developments in understanding the neural mechanisms of memory and imagery (Byrne et al., 2007).”
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Animal Minds (2017, background): “2014), including some impressively detailed computational models (Byrne et al. 2007; Sheynikhovich et al. 2009; Touretzky and Redish 1996).”
Using Grid Cells for Navigation (2015, methodology): “Moreover, the allocentric translation vectors extracted from the grid cell network by each of the models presented here would generally need to be converted into egocentric movement strategies elsewhere in the brain before they could be utilized for actual navigation (Byrne et al., 2007).”
Representing 3D Space in Working Memory: Spatial Images from Vision, Hearing, Touch, and Language (2013, methodology): “…between short-term and long-term memory representations for spatial content (Amorim et al. 1997 ; Avraamides and Kelly 2008 ; Burgess 2006 ; Byrne et al. 2007 ; Easton and Sholl 1995 ; Huttenlocher et al. 1991 ; McNamara 2003 ; Mou et al. 2004 ; Waller and Hodgson 2006 ; Wang and Spelke…”
Behavioural Brain Research (2016, positive): “A related, broader notion is that the retrosplenial cortex has a ‘translational’ function in the integration and transformation between multiple spatial codes, including allocentric representations into egocentric ones and vice versa [14,23,24].”
Remembering the past to imagine the future: the prospective brain (2007, positive): “Thinking about the perspectives of others (theory of mind) also appears to use the core brain system 40 , as do certain forms of navigation 20,32,41 .”
Navigating cognition: Spatial codes for human thinking (2018, background): “Simulations of trajectories building on spatially tuned cells have been incorporated in models of episodic memory and consolidation (12, 63, 133).”
Parahippocampal and retrosplenial contributions to human spatial navigation (2008, methodology): “Orientation mechanisms in RSC, however, might come into play once we know approximately where we are, by enabling us to specify directions to navigational goals [ 67 ].”
What does the retrosplenial cortex do? (2009, background): “The type of spatial deficit in patients (and animals) with RSC pathology, along with the anatomical connectivity of the RSC, has fostered the idea that the RSC has a 'translational' functio”