RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Differential Recruitment of the Hippocampus, Medial Prefrontal Cortex, and the Human Motion Complex during Path Integration in Humans
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 9408
OP 9416
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2146-07.2007
VO 27
IS 35
A1 Thomas Wolbers
A1 Jan M. Wiener
A1 Hanspeter A. Mallot
A1 Christian Büchel
YR 2007
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/35/9408.abstract
AB Path integration, the ability to sense self-motion for keeping track of changes in orientation and position, constitutes a fundamental mechanism of spatial navigation and a keystone for the development of cognitive maps. Whereas animal path integration is predominantly supported by the head-direction, grid, and place cell systems, the neural foundations are not well understood in humans. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a virtual rendition of a triangle completion paradigm to test whether human path integration recruits a cortical system similar to that of rodents and nonhuman primates. Participants traveled along two legs of a triangle before pointing toward the starting location. In accordance with animal models, stronger right hippocampal activation predicted more accurate updating of the starting location on a trial-by-trial basis. Moreover, between-subjects fluctuations in response consistency were negatively correlated with bilateral hippocampal and medial prefrontal activation, and bilateral recruitment of the human motion complex (hMT+) covaried with individual path integration capability. Given that these effects were absent in a perceptual control task, the present study provides the first evidence that visual path integration is related to the dynamic interplay of self-motion processing in hMT+, higher-level spatial processes in the hippocampus, and spatial working memory in medial prefrontal cortex.