Brain navigation can occur without external cues
Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.
A discovery at Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) has identified how little information the brain needs in order to navigate and accurately estimate location.
QBI research has led to the development of a startling theory that animal brains can use a memory map to determine locations without external cues such as sight, smell, touch and sound.
Dr Allen Cheung said that until now is has been incorrectly assumed that external input is needed for navigation within any environment.
“For example, if you are starting at a point of complete disorientation – by navigating with no sight, touch, smell or sound cues – the brain draw on a previously-learned map and quite accurately estimate its location purely by self-motion cues such as walking,” he said.
This ability applies specifically to a particular shape of arena, which has one-fold rotational symmetry such as a classic kite or egg shape, all the brain needs to do is to compare its best orientation guess with a ‘mind map’ of the environment.
Dr Cheung said the motivation for doing the research was to understand how brains compute information.
“There are a lot of possibilities that arise from this research, but the parts of the brain believed to carry out these computations, as found by the recent Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine, are significantly affected by neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
“These findings can now be tested in animals and humans to understand spatial computations, and we will be able to prove that both can develop and use a map built from self-motion cues.
“This work is important to highlight the plasticity of the brain, and its ability to gather a lot of information with very little input.”
Note: Material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
The University of Queensland - Australia press release
Publication
Allen Cheung. Estimating Location without External Cues. PLoS Computational Biology, Published October 30 2014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003927
