Dissociation and transformation between recognition memory and spatial navigation representations

Recognition refers to the ability to identify previously encountered stimuli, whereas navigation pertains to the capacity to employ flexible strategies to reach a destination. Despite their functional distinctions, the neural substrates of recognition and navigation share some commonalities, but many aspects of their relationship remain debated, particularly concerning the role of the hippocampus. We synthesize recent primate studies to examine how the hippocampus and related regions contribute to recognition memory and spatial navigation. We highlight that scene recognition, an ethologically relevant process for primates, is closely linked to spatial navigation. Emerging behavioral and physiological evidence suggests that while recognition and navigation share overlapping circuitry, they engage partially dissociable neural mechanisms. We argue that their interplay can be better understood through the framework of reference frame transformation.