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grid cells

This shows the outline of a head and a person walking.

·March 13, 2026·8 min read

Cortisol Blurs the Brain’s Internal Navigation Map

New research proves that stress hormones "blur" the brain's internal coordinate system, revealing how cortisol destabilizes the regions first affected by Alzheimer's

Featured Neuroscience

·May 20, 2024·4 min read

VR Unveils Brain’s GPS Response to Illusions

Researchers successfully induced illusions of self-location in participants using multi-sensory virtual reality (VR). They observed corresponding changes in the brain's grid cells, which are responsible for spatial navigation. This study is the first to demonstrate that purely cognitive changes in self-location, without physical movement or visual cues, can trigger activity in grid cells.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 18, 2021·5 min read

How the Brain Navigates Cities

Researchers say the brain appears to be wired to calculate not the shortest path, but the "pointiest" path, facing us toward our destination as much as possible.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 8, 2020·7 min read

How the Brain Remembers Right Place and Right Time

Two new studies advance understanding of how the brain encodes episodic memories. The findings have the potential to develop new avenues of treatment for memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease and TBI.

This shows an old couple walking down a lane

Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·August 31, 2020·4 min read

People With Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s Have Deficits in Navigating

Grid cell dysfunction in the entorhinal cortex may explain why people with a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease have problems with navigation.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 30, 2020·6 min read

Brain’s ‘GPS system’ toggles between present and possible future paths in real time

Study shows how hippocampal cells can represent different hypothetical scenarios consistently and systematically over time. The findings shed new light on how place cells assist in decision making and imagination.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 19, 2019·4 min read

Virtual ‘moonwalk’ for science reveals distortions in spatial memory

Memories learned within a distorted coordinated system are also distorted when recalled later.

Featured Neuroscience

·August 2, 2019·6 min read

Knowing where the center of a space is helps inform spatial awareness

The postrhinal cortex of rats contains three types of spatial cells which act together to provide a sense of location and directional orientation.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 22, 2019·5 min read

Brain regions linked to memory and emotion help humans navigate smell

During navigation tasks using a 'smell scape', the entorhinal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex elicit grid cell-like activity.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 11, 2019·5 min read

Rats in Augmented Reality Help Show How the Brain Determines Location

Using augmented reality, researchers discover how rats recalibrate learned relationships between a landmark, speed, distance and time to create a locational 'map' in the brain.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 9, 2018·7 min read

Navigating Our Thoughts: Fundamental Principles of Thinking

Researchers propose a new theory of human thinking, suggesting our brain's navigation system is key to thinking. This may explain why our knowledge seems to be organized in spatial fashion.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·October 14, 2018·4 min read

How the Brain’s Grid System Maps Mental Spaces

An international team of researchers have been able to demonstrate, with electrophysiological evidence, the existence of grid-like activity in the human brain.

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grid cells

Cortisol Blurs the Brain’s Internal Navigation Map

VR Unveils Brain’s GPS Response to Illusions

How the Brain Navigates Cities

How the Brain Remembers Right Place and Right Time

People With Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s Have Deficits in Navigating

Brain’s ‘GPS system’ toggles between present and possible future paths in real time

Virtual ‘moonwalk’ for science reveals distortions in spatial memory

Knowing where the center of a space is helps inform spatial awareness

Brain regions linked to memory and emotion help humans navigate smell

Rats in Augmented Reality Help Show How the Brain Determines Location

Navigating Our Thoughts: Fundamental Principles of Thinking

How the Brain’s Grid System Maps Mental Spaces

Spiritual Distress Is a Clinical Reality in Brain Disease

Most Insomnia Meds Don’t Worsen Sleep Apnea

Ghost in the Machine: Brain Predicts Images Before We See Them

Dog-Inspired Robot: How Gestures Help AI Master the Art of “Fetch”

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