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Map-like representations of an abstract conceptual space in the human brain
Authors:
BOKERIA, L., MOK, R., HENSON, R.
Reference:
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 15:620056
Year of publication:
2021
CBU number:
8599
Abstract:
Much of higher cognition involves abstracting away from sensory details and thinking conceptually.
How do our brains learn and represent such abstract concepts? Recent work has proposed that neural representations in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), which are involved in spatial navigation, might also support learning of higher-level knowledge structures (Behrens et al., 2018; Bellmund et al., 2018). Under this view, a range of MTL neurons such as place cells, grid cells, and head-direction cells may support the ability to mentally “navigate” through conceptual space. This extends the original proposal by Tolman (1948) that people construct “cognitive maps” that support broad psychological functions, and offers the exciting potential of understanding the cognitive processes
that underlie category learning, reinforcement learning and spatial navigation under a single unified
framework
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