Colloquium: Brains in Space: An Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium on Spatial Navigation

In this colloquium, speakers will present their research in various areas of spatial navigation, including behavioral, neuroscientific, and theoretical approaches. The goal is to foster interdisciplinary discussions along the lines of the review article "A Map of Spatial Navigation for Neuroscience" (Parra-Barrero et al., 2023) that proposes a taxonomy of spatial navigation processes in mammals. The talks will cover a diverse range of topics, from the neural underpinnings of navigation to complex navigation behaviors. Attendees will gain a better understanding of how the mammalian brain represents and navigates through space, as well as learn about several cognitive processes such as learning and memory through the lens of spatial navigation.

Takes place every week virtually on Tuesday from 16:00 to 17:30 CEST (central European summer time)
Zoom link: https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/67839364827?pwd=RfcIgK8OUfjkwWTNCf80ARXy118xe8.1

Schedule

20.05.2025 Thomas Wolbers - DZNE Magdeburg
Mechanisms of navigational decline in human aging
Deficits with spatial navigation are a hallmark of healthy aging, which can compromise mobility and independence. In addition, wandering behavior is the second most common behavioral deficit in advanced Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and path integration has been proposed as a sensitive indicator for detecting patients at increased risk of AD. In this talk, I will present a series of behavioral and neuroimaging studies with human participants involving blood biomarker analysis, immersive virtual reality and functional neuroimaging. Using a biologically inspired computational model, I will show how errors in path integration are not only more pronounced in patients with preclinical AD, but that the sources of error change with disease progression. Moreover, I will discuss the role of compromised grid cell computations to explain navigational deficits in human aging.
17.06.2025 James McLaren - Universität Oldenburg
Inaugural songbird migration: inherited headings, cue extrapolation or innate map-like sense?

Most studies suggest that first-time (inaugural) songbird migrants reach remote non-breeding grounds by following inherited compass headings, using sun, star or geomagnetic cues. Several translocation studies suggest inaugural route-corrections, challenging this clock-and-compass paradigm, although with highly variable local orientations or trajectories. I here present results from a radio-telemetry experiment of inaugural songbird migrants translocated 2200 km westward across a strong magnetic gradient in Canada. All remotely-detected translocated birds (n = 36) promptly and consistently route-corrected, suggestive of early-learned map use. However, route-correction varied with natal origin, more suggestive of either switching between or extrapolating among (inherited) headings, contingent upon magnetic signatures. These results definitively reveal abilities beyond clock-and-compass among inaugural migrants, yet also support the primacy of compass headings. I discuss how evolution of such abilities likely depends on spatial magnetic gradients, with consequences for population-level migratory responses to large-scale environmental changes.
01.07.2025 Lukas Kunz - Universität Bonn
On single-neuron codes of space in the hippocampal formation across species
15.07.2025 Xiangshuai Zeng - Ruhr University Bochum
Flexible encoding of episodic memory accounts for spatial representations and computations
A key question in neuroscience is why the hippocampus is essential for episodic memory in humans, but dominantly exhibits spatial representations in a number of species. Theoretical accounts often assume that spatial representation is the primary hippocampal function. Here, we show that a computational model, which autonomously learns to store information in memory and retrieve it as needed, accounts for key experimental findings from the hippocampus in both domains. In memory tasks, the model develops categorical representations akin to concept cells, associations, and attractor dynamics. In navigation tasks, the model forms representations of the spatial structure and performs geometric computations. In a mixed task, the model learns representations of space and unique events, similar to recently discovered barcodes. Our model predicts that the hippocampus represents any task-relevant variable, if the animal learns the task, suggesting that space does not have a special place in the hippocampus.

Lecturers

Details

Course type
Seminars
Term
Summer Term 2025

About the INI

The Institut für Neuroinformatik (INI) is a research unit of the Faculty of Computer Science at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Its scientific goal is to understand the fundamental principles through which organisms generate behavior and cognition while linked to their environments through sensory and effector systems. Inspired by our insights into such natural cognitive systems, we seek new solutions to problems of information processing in artificial cognitive systems. We draw from a variety of disciplines that include experimental psychology and neurophysiology as well as machine learning, neural artificial intelligence, computer vision, and robotics.

Contact

Universitätsstr. 150, Building NB, Room 3/32
D-44801 Bochum, Germany

Tel: (+49) 234 32-28967
Fax: (+49) 234 32-14210

sekretariat@ini.rub.de
www.ini.rub.de