Skip Navigation


Cerebral Cortex Advance Access first published online on June 2, 2006
This version published online on June 29, 2006
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl008
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/4/975    most recent
bhl008v2
bhl008v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Janzen, G.
Right arrow Articles by van Turennout, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Janzen, G.
Right arrow Articles by van Turennout, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Article

Neural Representation of Navigational Relevance Is Rapidly Induced and Long Lasting

Gabriele Janzen 1 *, Barbara Wagensveld 2, and Miranda van Turennout 3

1 Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands; F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2 F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3 F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Gabriele Janzen, E-mail: gabriele.janzen{at}mpi.nl


  Abstract

Successful navigation is facilitated by the presence of landmarks. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) evidence indicated that the human parahippocampal gyrus automatically distinguishes between landmarks placed at navigationally relevant (decision points) and irrelevant locations (nondecision points). This storage of navigational relevance can provide a neural mechanism underlying successful navigation. However, an efficient wayfinding mechanism requires that important spatial information is learned quickly and maintained over time. The present study investigates whether the representation of navigational relevance is modulated by time and practice. Participants learned 2 film sequences through virtual mazes containing objects at decision and at nondecision points. One maze was shown one time, and the other maze was shown 3 times. Twenty-four hours after study, event-related fMRI data were acquired during recognition of the objects. The results showed that activity in the parahippocampal gyrus was increased for objects previously placed at decision points as compared with objects placed at nondecision points. The decision point effect was not modulated by the number of exposures to the mazes and independent of explicit memory functions. These findings suggest a persistent representation of navigationally relevant information, which is stable after only one exposure to an environment. These rapidly induced and long-lasting changes in object representation provide a basis for successful wayfinding.

Keywords: fMRI; human navigation; learning and memory; memory formation; parahippocampal gyrus.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
K. K. Szpunar, J. C. K. Chan, and K. B. McDermott
Contextual Processing in Episodic Future Thought
Cereb Cortex, July 1, 2009; 19(7): 1539 - 1548.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.