Three cortical scene systems and their development

Since the discovery of three scene-selective regions in the human brain, a central assumption has been that all three regions directly support navigation. We propose instead that cortical scene processing regions support three distinct computational goals (and one not for navigation at all): (i) The parahippocampal place area supports scene categorization, which involves recognizing the kind of place we are in; (ii) the occipital place area supports visually guided navigation, which involves finding our way through the immediately visible environment, avoiding boundaries and obstacles; and (iii) the retrosplenial complex supports map-based navigation, which involves finding our way from a specific place to some distant, out-of-sight place. We further hypothesize that these systems develop along different timelines, with both navigation systems developing slower than the scene categorization system.