Teixeira De Almeida Mélanie, Seeber Martin, Gschwend Katherina, Maurer Roland, Faulmann Igor, Burra Nicolas
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Functional Brain Mapping Laboratory, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, Campus Biotech, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2023 Feb 22;17:1062064. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1062064. eCollection 2023.
The cognitive map is an internal representation of the environment and allows us to navigate through familiar environments. It preserves the distances and directions between landmarks which help us orient ourselves in our surroundings. The aim of our task was to understand the role played by theta waves in the cognitive map and especially how the cognitive map is recalled and how the manipulation of distances and directions occurs within the cognitive map.
In order to investigate the neural correlates of the cognitive map, we used the Cognitive Map Recall Test, in which 33 participants had to estimate distances and directions between familiar landmarks tailored to their own knowledge. We examined the role of theta waves in the cognitive map, as well as the brain regions that generated them. To that aim, we performed electroencephalographic source imaging while focusing on frequency spectral analysis.
We observed increases of theta amplitude in the frontal, temporal, parahippocampal gyri and temporal poles during the recall of the cognitive map. We also found increases of theta amplitude in the temporal pole and retrosplenial cortex during manipulation of directions. Overall, direction processing induces higher theta amplitude than distance processing, especially in the temporal lobe, and higher theta amplitude during recall compared to manipulation, except in the retrosplenial cortex where this pattern was reversed.
We reveal the role of theta waves as a marker of directional processing in the retrosplenial cortex and the temporal poles during the manipulation of spatial information. Increases in theta waves in frontal, parahippocampal, temporal and temporal pole regions appear to be markers of working memory and cognitive map recall. Therefore, our Cognitive Map Recall Test could be useful for testing directional difficulties in patients. Our work also shows that there are two distinct parts to the cognitive map test: recall and manipulation of spatial information. This is often considered as two similar processes in the literature, but our work demonstrates that these processes could be different, with theta waves from different brain regions contributing to either recall or manipulation; this should be considered in future studies.
认知地图是对环境的一种内部表征，使我们能够在熟悉的环境中导航。它保留了地标之间的距离和方向，有助于我们在周围环境中确定自己的方位。我们这项任务的目的是了解θ波在认知地图中所起的作用，特别是认知地图是如何被回忆起来的，以及在认知地图中距离和方向是如何被操纵的。
为了研究认知地图的神经关联，我们使用了认知地图回忆测试，33名参与者必须根据自己的知识估计熟悉地标的距离和方向。我们研究了θ波在认知地图中的作用，以及产生这些波的脑区。为此，我们在专注于频谱分析的同时进行了脑电信号源成像。
在回忆认知地图时，我们观察到额叶、颞叶、海马旁回和颞极的θ波振幅增加。在方向操纵过程中，我们还发现颞极和压后皮质的θ波振幅增加。总体而言，方向处理比距离处理诱发更高的θ波振幅，特别是在颞叶，并且与操纵相比，回忆期间的θ波振幅更高，但压后皮质的情况相反。
我们揭示了θ波在空间信息操纵过程中作为压后皮质和颞极方向处理标志物的作用。额叶、海马旁回、颞叶和颞极区域的θ波增加似乎是工作记忆和认知地图回忆的标志物。因此，我们的认知地图回忆测试可能有助于检测患者的方向困难。我们的研究还表明，认知地图测试有两个不同的部分：空间信息的回忆和操纵。在文献中，这通常被认为是两个相似的过程，但我们的研究表明这些过程可能不同，来自不同脑区的θ波分别有助于回忆或操纵；未来的研究应考虑这一点。
