Efficacy of navigation may be influenced by retrosplenial cortex-mediated learning of landmark stability.

ABSTRACT: Human beings differ considerably in their ability to orient and navigate within the environment, but it has been difficult to determine specific causes of these individual differences. Permanent, stable landmarks are thought to be crucial for building a mental representation of an environment. Poor, compared to good, navigators have been shown to have difficulty identifying permanent landmarks, with a concomitant reduction in functional MRI (fMRI) activity in the retrosplenial cortex. However, a clear association between navigation ability and the learning of permanent landmarks has not been established. Here we tested for such a link. We had participants learn a virtual reality environment by repeatedly moving through it during fMRI scanning. The environment contained landmarks of which p

SUBMITTER: Auger SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5637158 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature