Agency Modulation of Hippocampal Activity During Spatial Navigation

Agency Modulation of Hippocampal Activity During Spatial Navigation | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Biological Sciences - Article Agency Modulation of Hippocampal Activity During Spatial Navigation Joshua Goh, Yi-Chuang Lin, Ya-Ting Chang, Charlotte Maschke, Wan-Rue Lin, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6493656/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The role of navigational agency during hippocampal cognitive map formation remains unclear. To examine this, we measured functional brain activity as participants learned landmarks and paths in virtual mazes either through agentic self-generated movements or guided video tours. Anterior hippocampal responses were generally lower at objective nodes (landmarks and junctions) than non-nodes (traversals). Agency lowered hippocampal traversal activity and subsequently resulted in faster and more successful retrieval navigation behavior. Moreover, agency decreased hippocampal functional autocorrelations suggesting lowered responses stemmed from sparse encoding. Finally, hippocampal node encoding corresponded to the extent frontal and temporal responses dissociated nodes from non-nodes. These findings show that agentic spatial navigation affords subjective movement decisions during spatial traversal that drive hippocampal sparse encoding of plain space into structured node maps. Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience/Cognitive control Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files naturesupplementarymaterials20250421.docx Supplementary Materials for Agency Modulation of Hippocampal Activity During Spatial Navigation Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6493656","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Biological Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":450661287,"identity":"2ac5c7e3-7cb8-44ae-b600-025752c08edd","order_by":0,"name":"Joshua Goh","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA30lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxgYGNjDDgL0BJkC0Fp4DYNVAgpmgRVAtEglEamFub3/2mKemVs5c8u3xxzwMNrIbDvAfk8DrsJ4z5sY8x44bW87OS2zmYUgz3nCAmQ2/lhk5bNI8bMcSN9zOMQRqOZwI0nIDv5b0Z9I8/4Babp4BaflPjJYEM2netprEDTd4QFoOEKGl54yZ5Ny+A8YGZ3IMZ84xSDaeeZjZ/Ac+LYbAEJN4861OzuD4GYMPbyrsZPuONz42wKulAUwdhnJBagnFpDyEqiOgbBSMglEwCkY0AABVr0wBP26wbAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7808-5452","institution":"National Taiwan University College of Medicine","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Joshua","middleName":"","lastName":"Goh","suffix":""},{"id":450661288,"identity":"513ec135-6503-482e-844e-7bfe8c2b39fd","order_by":1,"name":"Yi-Chuang Lin","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National Taiwan University College of Medicine","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yi-Chuang","middleName":"","lastName":"Lin","suffix":""},{"id":450661289,"identity":"7116406b-5d41-4453-b205-58ab187eb5bd","order_by":2,"name":"Ya-Ting Chang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National Taiwan University College of Medicine","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ya-Ting","middleName":"","lastName":"Chang","suffix":""},{"id":450661290,"identity":"982c73ce-aa26-46db-b2da-61b4b44ce196","order_by":3,"name":"Charlotte Maschke","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"McGill University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Charlotte","middleName":"","lastName":"Maschke","suffix":""},{"id":450661291,"identity":"91794853-2098-407a-808e-3256c0aa0cb7","order_by":4,"name":"Wan-Rue Lin","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National Taiwan University College of Medicine","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wan-Rue","middleName":"","lastName":"Lin","suffix":""},{"id":450661292,"identity":"c1d23d6f-557b-4e43-83dc-100683417453","order_by":5,"name":"Yu-Shiang Su","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National Taiwan University College of Medicine","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yu-Shiang","middleName":"","lastName":"Su","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-21 07:45:19","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6493656/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6493656/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":83427575,"identity":"63ba362c-ccea-4af1-9d62-c14070661a0b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-26 05:40:03","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2077088,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"naturemanuscript20250421.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6493656/v1_covered_37ad4158-2e14-4dc0-b73f-8e0ffc3bada0.pdf"},{"id":83427109,"identity":"5bc74683-fb9b-4e28-a2d4-4d2e5a7361a3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-26 05:32:02","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":206362,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary Materials for Agency Modulation of Hippocampal Activity During Spatial Navigation","description":"","filename":"naturesupplementarymaterials20250421.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6493656/v1/c2c564465379b92a41746429.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Agency Modulation of Hippocampal Activity During Spatial Navigation","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6493656/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6493656/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The role of navigational agency during hippocampal cognitive map formation remains unclear. To examine this, we measured functional brain activity as participants learned landmarks and paths in virtual mazes either through agentic self-generated movements or guided video tours. Anterior hippocampal responses were generally lower at objective nodes (landmarks and junctions) than non-nodes (traversals). Agency lowered hippocampal traversal activity and subsequently resulted in faster and more successful retrieval navigation behavior. Moreover, agency decreased hippocampal functional autocorrelations suggesting lowered responses stemmed from sparse encoding. Finally, hippocampal node encoding corresponded to the extent frontal and temporal responses dissociated nodes from non-nodes. These findings show that agentic spatial navigation affords subjective movement decisions during spatial traversal that drive hippocampal sparse encoding of plain space into structured node maps.","manuscriptTitle":"Agency Modulation of Hippocampal Activity During Spatial Navigation","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-05-26 05:31:57","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6493656/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"5243f959-81fc-4b52-84c9-47549c200347","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 26th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":47950157,"name":"Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience"},{"id":47950158,"name":"Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience/Cognitive control"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-05-26T05:31:57+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-05-26 05:31:57","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6493656","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6493656","identity":"rs-6493656","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}