Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neuroscience

Neurons and navigation

Nature volume 436, pages 781–782 (2005)Cite this article

Where is the geometry of the environment represented in the brain? The entorhinal cortex, where neurons fire repeatedly when an animal's position coincides with the vertices of a grid of triangles, looks like a good bet.

Navigators will be familiar with the principles underlying the question tackled by Hafting et al.1 on page 801 of this issue. The authors' aim was to clarify where in the brain information about an animal's whereabouts is integrated. Their experimental subjects were rats; their approach involved recording from neurons in a part of the brain known as the entorhinal cortex as the rats explored specially designed enclosures.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Tessellation and navigation.

References

  1. Hafting, T., Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Moser, M. -B. & Moser, E. I. Nature 436, 801–806 (2005).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. O'Keefe, J. & Nadel, L. The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map (Clarendon, Oxford, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  3. McNaughton, B. L. et al. J. Exp. Biol. 199, 173–185 (1996).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Witter, M. P., Moser, E. I. & Moser, M. B. Science 305, 1258–1264 (2004).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Muller, R. U., Ranck, J. B. Jr & Taube, J. S. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 6, 196–206 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hargreaves, E. L., Rao, G., Lee, I. & Knierim, J. J. Science 308, 1792–1794 (2005).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Tulving, E. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 53, 1–25 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Squire, L. R. Psychol. Rev. 99, 195–231 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Eichenbaum, H. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 1, 41–50 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Buzsáki, G. Hippocampus (in the press).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, 197 University Avenue, Newark, 07102, New Jersey, USA

    György Buzsáki

Authors
  1. György Buzsáki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Buzsáki, G. Neurons and navigation. Nature 436, 781–782 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/436781a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/436781a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing