Abstract
A new theory is proposed of mechanisms of navigation in primates including humans in which spatial view cells found in the primate hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus are used to guide the individual from landmark to landmark. The navigation involves approach to each landmark in turn (taxis), using spatial view cells to identify the next landmark in the sequence, and does not require a topological map. Two other cell types found in primates, whole body motion cells, and head direction cells, can be utilized in the spatial view cell navigational mechanism, but are not essential. If the landmarks become obscured, then the spatial view representations can be updated by self-motion (idiothetic) path integration using spatial coordinate transform mechanisms in the primate dorsal visual system to transform from egocentric to allocentric spatial view coordinates. A continuous attractor network or time cells or working memory is used in this approach to navigation to encode and recall the spatial view sequences involved. I also propose how navigation can be performed using a further type of neuron found in primates, allocentric-bearing-to-a-landmark neurons, in which changes of direction are made when a landmark reaches a particular allocentric bearing. This is useful if a landmark cannot be approached. The theories are made explicit in models of navigation, which are then illustrated by computer simulations. These types of navigation are contrasted with triangulation, which requires a topological map. It is proposed that the first strategy utilizing spatial view cells is used frequently in humans, and is relatively simple because primates have spatial view neurons that respond allocentrically to locations in spatial scenes. An advantage of this approach to navigation is that hippocampal spatial view neurons are also useful for episodic memory, and for imagery.
Highlights
How the brain implements navigation is of major interest in neuroscience
There may be similar neurons to those we discovered in primates (O'Mara et al, 1994) found more recently in rodents in the medial entorhinal cortex termed “speed cells” which respond to translation, and neurons that respond to angular velocity have been described in the rat parietal cortex (Wilber, Clark, Forster, Tatsuno, & McNaughton, 2014; Wilber, Skelin, Wu, & McNaughton, 2017), but the roles of visual versus vestibular inputs for these rodent neurons are not yet clear
The simulation worked to perform navigation using spatial view cell information as illustrated in Figure 4b, and this can be viewed as a video by running NavSVC.mp4
Summary
How the brain implements navigation is of major interest in neuroscience. There are a number of different strategies, ranging from taxis (approach) to a viewed goal or to a landmark near a viewed goal, to computations using topological maps that imply knowing the place where one is located, the place of the goal, and performing computations within the topological map utilizing in addition information such as heading, distance travelled, and bearings to landmarks to make use of the map (Ekstrom & Isham, 2017; Franz & Mallot, 2000; Trullier, Wiener, Berthoz, & Meyer, 1997). I propose how navigation can be performed in primates and humans using spatial view cells found in the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus. The navigation involves movements to a sequence of landmarks guided by spatial view cells. Interesting aspects of this type of navigation are that a topological map of space is not needed, and the starting place need not be specified as the individual just needs to approach the first landmark to get started. It is suggested that this type of navigation, for which spatial view cells provide the foundation it is proposed here, is the most common type of navigation in humans, and is often used when instructions are used to reach a goal
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