Agency Modulation of Hippocampal Activity During Spatial Navigation.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Spatial Navigation

Background:

• The precise role of navigational agency in forming cognitive maps within the hippocampus is not fully understood.
• Understanding how self-driven movement influences spatial memory is crucial for cognitive neuroscience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of navigational agency on hippocampal activity and cognitive map formation.
• To compare brain responses during agentic navigation versus guided exploration in virtual environments.

Main Methods:

• Functional brain activity was measured in participants navigating virtual mazes.
• Navigation methods included self-generated movements (agentic) and guided video tours.
• Analysis focused on hippocampal activity at objective nodes (landmarks, junctions) versus non-nodes (traversals).

Main Results:

• Hippocampal activity was lower at nodes compared to traversals.
• Agency reduced hippocampal traversal activity, improving navigation speed and success.
• Agency decreased hippocampal functional autocorrelations, indicating sparser encoding.

Conclusions:

• Agentic spatial navigation, involving subjective movement decisions, drives sparse encoding in the hippocampus.
• This process transforms unstructured spatial information into structured node-based cognitive maps.
• Findings highlight the importance of self-initiated movement in spatial learning and memory.