 |
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The Journal of Neuroscience, August 3, 2005, 25(31):7254-7259; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1103-05.2005
Previous Article | Next Article
Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
The Human Hippocampus: Cognitive Maps or Relational Memory?
Dharshan Kumaran andEleanor A. Maguire Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom
The hippocampus is widely accepted to play a pivotal role in memory. Two influential theories offer competing accounts of its fundamental operating mechanism. The cognitive map theory posits a special role in mapping large-scale space, whereas the relational theory argues it supports amodal relational processing. Here, we pit the two theories against each other using a novel paradigm in which the relational processing involved in navigating in a city was matched with similar navigational and relational processing demands in a nonspatial (social) domain. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants determined the optimal route either between friends' homes or between the friends themselves using social connections. Separate brain networks were engaged preferentially during the two tasks, with hippocampal activation driven only by spatial relational processing. We conclude that the human hippocampus appears to have a bias toward the processing of spatial relationships, in accordance with the cognitive map theory. Our results both advance our understanding of the nature of the hippocampal contribution to memory and provide insights into how social networks are instantiated at the neural level.
Key words: fMRI; hippocampus; memory; relational; cognitive map; spatial cognition
Received March 21, 2005; revised June 23, 2005; accepted June 26, 2005.
This article has been cited by other articles:
K. Woollett, H. J. Spiers, and E. A. Maguire
Talent in the taxi: a model system for exploring expertise
Phil Trans R Soc B, May 27, 2009; 364(1522): 1407 - 1416.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
D. Hassabis and E. A. Maguire
The construction system of the brain
Phil Trans R Soc B, May 12, 2009; 364(1521): 1263 - 1271.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
P. Tavares, A. D. Lawrence, and P. J. Barnard
Paying Attention to Social Meaning: An fMRI Study
Cereb Cortex, August 1, 2008; 18(8): 1876 - 1885.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
E. Soei and I. Daum
Course of relational and non-relational recognition memory across the adult lifespan
Learn. Mem., January 3, 2008; 15(1): 21 - 28.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
D. Hassabis, D. Kumaran, and E. A. Maguire
Using Imagination to Understand the Neural Basis of Episodic Memory
J. Neurosci., December 26, 2007; 27(52): 14365 - 14374.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
Y. Shrager, P. J. Bayley, B. Bontempi, R. O. Hopkins, and L. R. Squire
Spatial memory and the human hippocampus
PNAS, February 20, 2007; 104(8): 2961 - 2966.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
E. A. Maguire, R. Nannery, and H. J. Spiers
Navigation around London by a taxi driver with bilateral hippocampal lesions.
Brain, November 1, 2006; 129(Pt 11): 2894 - 2907.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
D. E. Hannula, D. Tranel, and N. J. Cohen
The long and the short of it: relational memory impairments in amnesia, even at short lags.
J. Neurosci., August 9, 2006; 26(32): 8352 - 8359.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|