Alzheimer's disease & dementia

People with increased risk of Alzheimer's have deficits in navigating

Animals and humans have the ability to follow their own position in space through self-motion cues, even in the absence of any other sensory information. "If you get up at night and want to find your way to the bathroom in ...

Neuroscience

Grid cells create 'treasure map' in rat brain

Grid cells and place cells are specialized neurons that allow the brain to create a map of the outside world in which one navigates (Nobel Prize 2014). This brain GPS system is built on grid cells' strikingly regular pattern ...

Neuroscience

Paper proposes new way to understand how the neocortex works

Scientists at Numenta propose a major new theory about how the human brain works. While neuroscientists have amassed an enormous amount of detailed factual knowledge about the brain, there remains no unifying theory as to ...

Neuroscience

Navigating our thoughts: Fundamental principles of thinking

It is one of the most fundamental questions in neuroscience: How do humans think? Until recently, we seemed far from a conclusive answer. However, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences ...

Neuroscience

Oscillations provide insights into the brain's navigation system

The brain creates a map of our environment, which enables reliable spatial navigation. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2014 for research into how this navigation system works at the cellular level. Researchers at the Medical ...

Neuroscience

Getting lost—why older people might lose their way

Researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE) have found a possible explanation for the difficulty in spatial orientation sometimes experienced by elderly people. In the brains of older adults, they ...

Neuroscience

Virtual reality helps explore the GPS of the mind

Zoltan Nadasdy, a neuroscientist at The University of Texas at Austin, wanted to understand how grid cells in the brain help orient us in the world. He had been studying spatial memory in the animal brain for years when ...

Neuroscience

Impaired path integration in mice with disrupted grid cell firing

One of the most complex accomplishments of our brain is spatial orientation. To accomplish this, the brain uses various cell types including place cells and grid cells. Place cells tell the brain the current position. Scientists ...

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