Neural representations that support human spatial navigation

Lead Researcher:  Dr Aidan Horner, Department of Psychology

We are able to navigate complex environments with relative ease, an ability that relies on an extended network of regions in the human brain. 

The critical role that spatial navigation plays in daily life is seen in Alzheimer’s Disease, where spatial disorientation places patients at risk of harm, leading to a debilitating loss of independence. Dr Horner’s lab is interested in how the brain supports spatial navigation.

Their research combines virtual reality environments with fMRI, MEG, and multivariate pattern analyses to reveal the neural representations that support spatial navigation in healthy human participants. They develop novel stimulus sets of real-world locations as well as bespoke virtual reality environments that allow them to test specific hypotheses from neurocognitive models of spatial navigation.

Featured publications

  • Berens, S.C., Joensen, B.H., & Horner, A.J., (2021) Tracking the Emergence of Location-based Spatial Representations in Human Scene-Selective Cortex, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 33(3), 445-462.
  • Horner, A.J., Bisby, J.A., Wang, A., Bogus, K., & Burgess, N., (2016) The role of spatial boundaries in shaping long-term event representations, Cognition, 154, 151-164.
  • Horner, A.J., Bisby, J.A., Zotow, E., Bush, D., & Burgess, N., (2016) Grid-like processing of imagined navigation, Current Biology, 26, 842-847.

Contact us

York Biomedical Research Institute

ybri@york.ac.uk
+44 (0)1904 328845
B/H/002, Department of Biology, Wentworth Way, University of York, York, YO10 5NG
Twitter

Contact us

York Biomedical Research Institute

ybri@york.ac.uk
+44 (0)1904 328845
B/H/002, Department of Biology, Wentworth Way, University of York, York, YO10 5NG
Twitter