Gahnstrom Christoffer J, Spiers Hugo J
Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
Brain Neurosci Adv. 2020 Dec 21;4:2398212820979772. doi: 10.1177/2398212820979772. eCollection 2020 Jan-Dec.
The hippocampus has been firmly established as playing a crucial role in flexible navigation. Recent evidence suggests that dorsal striatum may also play an important role in such goal-directed behaviour in both rodents and humans. Across recent studies, activity in the caudate nucleus has been linked to forward planning and adaptation to changes in the environment. In particular, several human neuroimaging studies have found the caudate nucleus tracks information traditionally associated with that by the hippocampus. In this brief review, we examine this evidence and argue the dorsal striatum encodes the transition structure of the environment during flexible, goal-directed behaviour. We highlight that future research should explore the following: (1) Investigate neural responses during spatial navigation via a biophysically plausible framework explained by reinforcement learning models and (2) Observe the interaction between cortical areas and both the dorsal striatum and hippocampus during flexible navigation.
海马体在灵活导航中发挥关键作用已得到确凿证实。最近的证据表明，背侧纹状体在啮齿动物和人类的这种目标导向行为中可能也起着重要作用。在最近的多项研究中，尾状核的活动与前瞻性规划以及对环境变化的适应有关。特别是几项人类神经影像学研究发现，尾状核追踪的信息传统上与海马体相关。在这篇简短的综述中，我们审视了这一证据，并认为背侧纹状体在灵活的目标导向行为中对环境的过渡结构进行编码。我们强调，未来的研究应探索以下方面：（1）通过强化学习模型解释的生物物理合理框架来研究空间导航过程中的神经反应；（2）观察灵活导航过程中皮层区域与背侧纹状体及海马体之间的相互作用。
