Whether you are making your way through a crowded pedestrian zone or striving towards the goal in a team game, in both situations it is important to think not only about your own movements but also those of others. These navigation and orientation processes are carried out by brain cells that register our current position, where we are coming from, where we are moving towards and in which direction we are looking. Through their joint activity, they create a "map" of our surroundings. A special type of these cells are the so-called grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, a small brain region in the middle temporal lobe. They function like the brain's own GPS, because they not only represent our position in space, but can also put it in relation to other points in the same space.
[...] They found that the brain activity recorded while watching others was comparable to the activity of grid cells. In addition, the team was able to show that this activity was part of a larger network of brain regions that are associated with navigation processes. Interestingly, however, it turned out that the better a subject was at following the path of others, the less active this network was. "We interpret this as greater efficiency of the grid cells, which might make it less necessary to engage the larger brain network," Wagner explains.
The results of the study thus suggest that grid cells belong to a larger network of brain regions that, among other aspects, coordinates navigation processes. However, this network is particularly affected by ageing processes and especially by dementia. Wagner explains: "The function of grid cells decreases with age and dementia. As a result, people can no longer find their way around and their orientation is impaired." The group's further research is now dedicated to the question of whether grid cells are also involved in recognising other people - an aspect that is often impaired in advanced dementia.
Journal Reference:
Wagner, I.C., Graichen, L.P., Todorova, B. et al. Entorhinal grid-like codes and time-locked network dynamics track others navigating through space. Nat Commun 14, 231 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-35819-3
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday March 14, @04:26PM
If it doesn't, you didn't use enough force.
(Score: 1) by jman on Thursday March 16, @11:22AM
This implies that both fish and birds also have and employ these grid cells, but have evolved a method of suppressing them when not the leader (which of course can change at a moment's notice).