IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v463y2010i7281d10.1038_nature08704.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network

Author

Listed:
  • Christian F. Doeller

    (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
    UCL Institute of Neurology)

  • Caswell Barry

    (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
    UCL Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
    UCL Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, University College London)

  • Neil Burgess

    (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
    UCL Institute of Neurology)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian F. Doeller & Caswell Barry & Neil Burgess, 2010. "Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network," Nature, Nature, vol. 463(7281), pages 657-661, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:463:y:2010:i:7281:d:10.1038_nature08704
    DOI: 10.1038/nature08704
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08704
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature08704?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Johnson Ying & Alexandra T. Keinath & Raphael Lavoie & Erika Vigneault & Salah El Mestikawy & Mark P. Brandon, 2022. "Disruption of the grid cell network in a mouse model of early Alzheimer’s disease," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Sina Mackay & Thomas P. Reber & Marcel Bausch & Jan Boström & Christian E. Elger & Florian Mormann, 2024. "Concept and location neurons in the human brain provide the ‘what’ and ‘where’ in memory formation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Alexander Nitsch & Mona M. Garvert & Jacob L. S. Bellmund & Nicolas W. Schuck & Christian F. Doeller, 2024. "Grid-like entorhinal representation of an abstract value space during prospective decision making," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Isabella C. Wagner & Luise P. Graichen & Boryana Todorova & Andre Lüttig & David B. Omer & Matthias Stangl & Claus Lamm, 2023. "Entorhinal grid-like codes and time-locked network dynamics track others navigating through space," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    5. Nir Moneta & Mona M. Garvert & Hauke R. Heekeren & Nicolas W. Schuck, 2023. "Task state representations in vmPFC mediate relevant and irrelevant value signals and their behavioral influence," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, December.
    6. Will D Penny & Peter Zeidman & Neil Burgess, 2013. "Forward and Backward Inference in Spatial Cognition," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Simone Viganò & Rena Bayramova & Christian F. Doeller & Roberto Bottini, 2023. "Mental search of concepts is supported by egocentric vector representations and restructured grid maps," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Federica Sigismondi & Yangwen Xu & Mattia Silvestri & Roberto Bottini, 2024. "Altered grid-like coding in early blind people," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:463:y:2010:i:7281:d:10.1038_nature08704. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.