Navigating the human hippocampus without a GPS

Abstract

The award of the Nobel Prize to Professors John O'Keefe, May‐Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser brings global recognition to one of the most significant success stories in modern neuroscience. Here, we consider how their findings, along with related studies of spatial cognition in rodents, have informed our understanding of the human hippocampus. Rather than identifying a “GPS” in the brain, we emphasize that these researchers helped to establish a fundamental role for cortico‐hippocampal networks in the guidance of behavior based on a representation of the current place, time, and situation. We conclude by highlighting the major questions that remain to be addressed in future research. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 02, 2015
Source ID
10.1002/hipo.22447

Entities

People

  • Charan Ranganath
  • Halle R Zucker

Organizations

  • National Science Foundation
  • Office of Naval Research
  • University of California, Davis

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Military History
  • Neuroscience
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space