Your brain 'compass' helps you navigate and can throw light on Parkinson's, Alzheimer's: Study

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While a great deal of research has been done on the navigation skills of many different species, not as much is known about our own "neural compass." Nonetheless, comprehending this neuronal network may have significant effects on our knowledge of disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, which frequently cause impairments in orientation and navigation read more

Griffiths and his colleagues at the University of Birmingham and Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University set out to examine this human brain compass by undertaking a series of motion-tracking experiments for a new study that was published in the online journal Nature Human Behavior Image Courtesy AP

Humans are often adept at navigating; we can find our way home, recall walks in our favorite parks and towns, or negotiate complex office buildings. However, what takes place in our minds when we make use of this internal compass?

While a great deal of research has been done on the navigation skills of many different species, not as much is known about our own "neural compass." Nonetheless, comprehending this neuronal network may have significant effects on our knowledge of disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, which frequently cause impairments in orientation and navigation.

"Keeping track of the direction you are heading in is pretty important," Benjamin Griffiths, a research fellow at the U.K.'s University of Birmingham, said in a statement.

"Even small errors in estimating where you are and which direction you are heading in can be disastrous," he continued.

"We know that animals such as birds, rats and bats have neural circuitry that keeps them on track, but we know surprisingly little about how the human brain manages this out and about in the real world."

Griffiths and his colleagues at the University of Birmingham and Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University set out to examine this human brain compass by undertaking a series of motion-tracking experiments for a new study that was published in the online journal Nature Human Behavior.

52 healthy individuals participated in the study and were asked to move their heads in response to cues displayed on several computer monitors while having their brain activity monitored by an EEG scalp monitor.

The researchers enlisted ten volunteers for a different trial who were already receiving cerebral electrode monitoring for diseases such as epilepsy. Once more, while their brain signals were being observed, the subjects were instructed to move their heads, or occasionally just their eyes.

Once complicating variables like muscle movement were taken into consideration, the researchers identified a precisely timed directional signal that materialized right before the subjects' actual head direction shifts. According to the researchers, this indicates that the brain has an innate "neural compass" that it utilizes to find its way around and orient itself in space.

"Isolating these signals enables us to really focus on how the brain processes navigational information and how these signals work alongside other cues such as visual landmarks," Griffiths said.

"Our approach has opened up new avenues for exploring these features, with implications for research into neurodegenerative diseases and even for improving navigational technologies in robotics and AI," he said.