g. 51 and 52]). It is interesting then to note that navigation is not dissimilar to the inverse of path integration: the former requires the calculation of the vector between two allocentric locations, while the latter uses recent motion,

expressed as a vector, to update an allocentric representation of self-location. As such it seems possible that the neural architecture that supports path integration might also play a role in navigation. Indeed, several authors have recently proposed models of navigation in which grid cells are seen as the central component http://www.selleckchem.com/products/pirfenidone.html of a network able to determine the allocentric vector between an animal’s current location and a remembered goal 53, 54 and 55]. However, the mechanisms employed by the models differ markedly, ranging this website from an iterative search for the appropriate vector [53] to a complex representation of all possible vectors projected into to the cyclic grid space [54]. As such, at the neural level, it is still too early to predict how the activity of individual grid cells might be modulated during navigation. However, at the population level accessible to fMRI, it seems plausible that metabolic activity in the entorhinal cortex should correlate with allocentric spatial parameters. Indeed it is already known that the coherence of the directional

signal associated with grid cells correlates with navigational performance [56]. Furthermore, in light of the limitations imposed on place cell models of navigation by the irregular distribution of place fields, it seems Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II more likely that activity in the hippocampus will reflect route based variables. A number of recent fMRI studies have examined whether brain activity is correlated with the distance between landmarks or to goals during navigation. During navigation a number of spatial parameters represent the navigator’s relationship to the goal (Figure 2a) and these parameters change over the different key events

and epochs that characterise navigation (Figure 2b). Humans have been shown to be reasonably good at estimating parameters such as Euclidean distance, path distance, and direction to distant locations, at least in large complex buildings [57]. Two studies have reported increased activity in the mid to anterior hippocampus at the start of navigation when route planning was required 8 and 58]. Such activity may relate to the initial demands of planning the route to the goal, however it was not clear whether this activity was related to the distance to the goal. The first fMRI study to examine spatial goal coding found that activity in the entorhinal cortex of London taxi drivers was significantly positively correlated with the Euclidean distance to the goal during the navigation of a virtual simulation of London, UK [9•] (Figure 3a). This result is consistent with the entorhinal cortex coding an allocentric vector to the goal 53, 54, 55 and 59]. Several recent studies have adopted a similar approach (Figure 3b–d).