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Department of Neuroscience College of Medicine
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Spatial cognition and the hippocampus: neuroscientists weigh in

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In a new perspective piece in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, UF neuroscientist Andrew Mauerer, Ph.D., and University of psychologist Lynn Nadel, Ph.D., highlight the role of the hippocampus in spatial cognition and episodic memory.

Andrew Maurer, Ph.D. (center). [This image was taken prior to national guidelines of face coverings and physical distancing.]
“Spatial cognition” is the study of how humans take in and use knowledge of their environment to assess location, get resources and find the way home. “Episodic memory” is the ability to remember personally experienced events linked with a particular time and place.

“Tracking moment-to-moment change in input and detecting change sufficient to require altering behavior is crucial to survival,” the authors write. “We discuss how the brain evaluates change over time, focusing on hippocampus and its role in tracking context.”

Read the paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.