Navigating space: Dual maps discovered in the brain.

Researchers at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL have discovered two distinct maps in the brain's secondary motor cortex that are involved in spatial planning and navigation. The maps use a self-centered coordinate system and a world-centered map to determine the body's position in the world. This research could have implications for understanding neurological conditions that affect spatial attention, such as stroke. The researchers used a novel task in rats to differentiate between self-centered and world-centered reference frames and recorded neural activity to decode the information. They are now exploring how these dual maps are used in tasks and studying more complex sequences of movements to further understand spatial attention and its connection to planning and execution of orienting movements. [Extracted from the article]