Neural mechanisms for navigation

To examine the neural basis of navigation we recorded the activity of neurons in the monkey medial parietal region (MPR) while monkeys actively navigated through a virtual environment. We found navigation neurons whose responses to the same movement at the same location were modulated depending on the route that the monkey was currently taking, that is, in a route-selective manner. The reversible inactivation of MPR neurons by muscimol resulted in a monkey becoming lost during the navigation task trial. These results suggest that MPR plays a critical role in navigation by integrating location information and self-movement information.