title: Distances between real-world locations are represented in the human hippocampus.
abstract: Spatial navigation is believed to be guided in part by reference to an internal map of the environment. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test for a key aspect of a cognitive map: preservation of real-world distance relationships. University students were scanned while viewing photographs of familiar campus landmarks. fMRI response levels in the left hippocampus corresponded to real-world distances between landmarks shown on successive trials, indicating that this region considered closer landmarks to be more representationally similar and more distant landmarks to be more representationally distinct. In contrast, posterior visually responsive regions such as retrosplenial complex and the parahippocampal place area were sensitive to landmark repetition and encoded landmark identity in their multivoxel activity patterns but did not show a distance-related response. These data suggest the existence of a map-like representation in the human medial temporal lobe that encodes the coordinates of familiar locations in large-scale, real-world environments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Lindsay K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: Sean P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Macevoy
authors.forename: Geoffrey K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Aguirre
authors.forename: Russell A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Epstein
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult