Scientists have discovered a neural compass in the human brain: better than an electronic navigator

The results of the study may help in the study of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases

Orientation in the area can sometimes be a difficult task without any help. At a minimum, without a navigator in our smartphones. However, scientists in a new study conclude that our brains can cope with this task much more skillfully, thanks to a “built-in” neural compass. It works very interesting.

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The new study was carried out by scientists from the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

«We would describe the neural compass as a signal in the brain that is sent to many different areas of the brain involved in navigation,» study author Dr Benjamin J Griffiths from the University of Birmingham told the Daily Mail.

He adds: “The brain signal informs these areas of where we are in the environment, and this helps update our navigational goals as we move through space. This tells us that we are turning about 50 to 100 milliseconds before we actually do so. For example, when we turn on a street corner, the neural compass signal informs the areas of the brain that help us navigate the turn, allowing us to update our direction (for example, take a new street).»

Without such «compass» people are likely to have «significantly impaired navigational abilities»: «We won't be completely hopeless, but we will have a very difficult time getting from point A to point B.»

For the study, Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues recruited 52 healthy participants for a series of motion-tracking experiments, while their brain activity was recorded with a special device.

The experiment used electroencephalography (EEG), a method of recording electrical activity in the brain that involves placing electrodes along the scalp.

All tasks encouraged participants to move their heads, and sometimes just their eyes. The researchers were able to identify a finely tuned compass heading signal that could be detected just before participants made physical changes in head position.

“We found that the compass is 'always on', but the signals tend to be strongest just before we move. «Perhaps this is a warning to other parts of the brain that a change in direction is coming,» said Dr Griffiths.

Until this study, scientists were not entirely sure how people managed to navigate and navigate their environment: «Previous research a neural compass similar to the one we observed has been discovered in rodents and birds. But humans are much more visual than these species (meaning we tend to explore the world more with our eyes). Our results show that we do have a compass, similar to rodents and birds, but we also add a little extra to that with our eyes.»

The results have implications for understanding diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, in which Navigation and orientation are often impaired. In future work, the researchers plan to study how the brain moves through time to see if such activity is responsible for memory. The new study was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.