'Homing Signal' in Human Brains Cause Some People to be Better Navigators

Some people are better at navigating than others and now, scientists may have found out why. It turns out that the strength of a certain signal in our brain that tells us the direction to travel when we navigate may influence how good we are at navigating.

Scientists have long known that some people are better at navigating than others. But scientists have long wondered why this is. Now, scientists have found that the strength and reliability of "homing signals" in the brain may be to blame.

In order to successfully navigate somewhere, you need to know which direction you're currently facing and which direction to travel in. Mammals actually have brain cells that signal the direction that they are currently facing.

In order to see why some people are better at navigating than others, the scientists recruited 16 healthy volunteers. These participants had to navigate a simple square environment simulated on a computer; each wall had a picture of a different landscape and each corner contained a different object. The volunteers were placed in a corner of the environment facing a certain direction and asked how to navigate to an object in another corner.

In the end, the researchers found that the strength and consistency of brain signals from the entorhinal region of the brain influenced people's performance.

"Our results provide evidence to support the idea that your internal 'compass' readjusts as you move through the environment," said Martin Chadwick, one of the researchers, in a news release. "For example, if you turn left then your entorhinal region should process this to shift your facing direction and goal direction accordingly. If you get lost after taking too many turns, this may be because your brain could not keep up and failed to adjust your facing and goal directions."

The findings are published in the journal Current Biology.

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