Oxford researchers Mr. Jan Balaguer and Professor Christopher Summerfield have conducted a study aimed at understanding how humans make plans when navigating in maze-like environments, such as the London Tube network. Navigating complex maze is challenging, but can be made easier if the environment is represented hierarchically, for example as a series of "lines" and "stations". The researchers found distinct brain mechanisms for hierarchical representation of plans in the medial prefrontal cortex. The work, which was conducted in collaboration with Google Deepmind, is published in the journal Neuron. The work has been reported by numerous news outlets worldwide, including the BBC.
Oxford researchers use brain imaging to understand how you navigate the London Underground
23 May 2016
