Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Epilepsy Center, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM), University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Epilepsy Center, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Neuron. 2021 Sep 1;109(17):2781-2796.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.06.019. Epub 2021 Jul 14.
Spatial navigation and memory rely on neural systems that encode places, distances, and directions in relation to the external world or relative to the navigating organism. Place, grid, and head-direction cells form key units of world-referenced, allocentric cognitive maps, but the neural basis of self-centered, egocentric representations remains poorly understood. Here, we used human single-neuron recordings during virtual spatial navigation tasks to identify neurons providing a neural code for egocentric spatial maps in the human brain. Consistent with previous observations in rodents, these neurons represented egocentric bearings toward reference points positioned throughout the environment. Egocentric bearing cells were abundant in the parahippocampal cortex and supported vectorial representations of egocentric space by also encoding distances toward reference points. Beyond navigation, the observed neurons showed activity increases during spatial and episodic memory recall, suggesting that egocentric bearing cells are not only relevant for navigation but also play a role in human memory.
空间导航和记忆依赖于神经系统，这些系统将外部世界或相对于导航生物的位置、距离和方向进行编码。位置、网格和头部方向细胞形成了世界参照的、非自我中心认知地图的关键单元，但自我中心、自我中心表示的神经基础仍知之甚少。在这里，我们在人类虚拟空间导航任务中使用单细胞记录来识别为人类大脑中的自我中心空间图谱提供神经编码的神经元。与先前在啮齿动物中的观察结果一致，这些神经元代表了朝向环境中各个位置的自我中心方位。自我中心方位细胞在海马旁皮质中大量存在，并通过编码朝向参考点的距离来支持自我中心空间的向量表示。除了导航之外，观察到的神经元在空间和情景记忆回忆期间表现出活动增加，这表明自我中心方位细胞不仅与导航相关，而且在人类记忆中也发挥作用。
