title: A goal direction signal in the human entorhinal/subicular region.
abstract: Navigating to a safe place, such as a home or nest, is a fundamental behavior for all complex animals. Determining the direction to such goals is a crucial first step in navigation. Surprisingly, little is known about how or where in the brain this "goal direction signal" is represented. In mammals, "head-direction cells" are thought to support this process, but despite 30 years of research, no evidence for a goal direction representation has been reported. Here, we used fMRI to record neural activity while participants made goal direction judgments based on a previously learned virtual environment. We applied multivoxel pattern analysis to these data and found that the human entorhinal/subicular region contains a neural representation of intended goal direction. Furthermore, the neural pattern expressed for a given goal direction matched the pattern expressed when simply facing that same direction. This suggests the existence of a shared neural representation of both goal and facing direction. We argue that this reflects a mechanism based on head-direction populations that simulate future goal directions during route planning. Our data further revealed that the strength of direction information predicts performance. Finally, we found a dissociation between this geocentric information in the entorhinal/subicular region and egocentric direction information in the precuneus.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK.
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Chadwick
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK.
authors.forename: Amy E J
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Jolly
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Doran P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Amos
authors.affiliation: Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College, 17 Queen Square, Alexandra House, London WC1N 3AR, UK. Electronic address: d.hassabis@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Demis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hassabis
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK. Electronic address: h.spiers@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Hugo J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Spiers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006040:Goals; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006702:Homing Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*