Unweaving the Cognitive Map: A Personal History

Abstract

I have been incredibly fortunate to have worked in the field of hippocampal spatial coding during three of its most exciting decades, the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. During this time I had a ringside view of some of the foundational discoveries that were made which have transformed our understanding of the hippocampal system and its role in cognition (especially spatial cognition) and memory. These discoveries inspired me in my own lab over the years to pursue three broad lines of enquiry-3D spatial encoding, context and the sense of direction-which are outlined here. If some of my personal recollections are a little inaccurate (such is the nature of episodic memory!) I apologize in advance.

Keywords: configural learning; context; head direction cells; hippocampus; place cells; spatial cognition.