Spatial Awareness Compass Also Helps with Thought Navigation

Researchers at the University of Trento have discovered that the same neural mechanisms that signal the direction of movement in the physical environment are also used for orientation and navigation in abstract spaces. Their results were published in Communications Biology.

The research team had previously provided experimental evidence that the populations of neurons that provide spatial information based on a grid-like system are activated not only to navigate the physical environment but also to navigate in the abstract space of ideas and concepts.

Now, the team—again using magnetic resonance imaging—has demonstrated that another type of brain cell is involved in abstract thinking, which is complementary to the previously identified types, acting as a type of compass for orientation in the space of ideas. In this study, the research team searched for the involvement of so-called head-direction cells, which have been identified in the brains of several species of non-human animals when navigating physical space.

"Using magnetic resonance imaging, we have shown that there are populations of neurons, mostly located in the medial parietal cortex, that behave like head-direction cells; in other words, they signal the direction of movement even when movement does not occur in a physical space, but in an abstract, conceptual space,” the team says. "This discovery suggests the existence of a complementary mechanism for conceptual navigation outside the hippocampal formation."