Psychology

Forming cognitive maps for abstract spaces: the roles of the human hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex

Y. Qiu, H. Li, et al.

How does the brain map abstract spaces for decision-making? An fMRI study of navigation in multidimensional abstract spaces finds distinct neural signatures for exploration versus exploitation: hippocampus and lateral PFC ramp up during exploration, while OFC and retrosplenial cortex dominate during exploitation. Representational analyses show stronger destination encoding in exploitation, highlighting medial temporal–prefrontal collaboration. This research was conducted by Authors present in <Authors> tag: Yidan Qiu, Huakang Li, Jiajun Liao, Kemeng Chen, Xiaoyan Wu, Bingyi Liu, and Ruiwang Huang.