Navigation articles from across Nature Portfolio

The mechanisms of episodic memory are not well understood. Here, the authors show that the reactivation of non-spatial information precedes the reactivation of spatial information, and that both are correlated with hippocampal sharp-wave ripples.

Neural coding of goal direction remains unclear in insects. Here, the authors describe goal-direction neurons in the monarch butterfly brain that specifically encode the insect’s desired flight direction during spatial orientation.

The contribution of visual information to the representation of space in the brain is well known and recent research in rodents has indicated that spatial signals can also influence visual processing. In this Review, Saleem and Busse describe what is known about these bidirectional interactions and their importance in the control of visuo-spatial behaviour.

In this study, Petrucco, Lavian et al. identify a circuit in the hindbrain of larval zebrafish that persistently encodes heading direction. Neurons of this network, of stereotypical morphology, inhibit each other to support ring attractor dynamics.

Grid cells develop in rats soon after they leave the nest. Here, Ulsaker-Janke et al. show that preventing exposure to straight boundaries from birth delays, but does not prevent, grid cell maturation in adult rats.

Mice show degradation of their hippocampal place code when they disengage from a virtual goal-directed navigation task.

Pettit, Yuan and Harvey find that hippocampal spatial maps degrade when mice voluntarily disengage from a navigation task, even without changes in sensory or self-motion cues. This finding suggests that internal state could have an active role in supporting navigational coding and, perhaps, spatial memory.