# CRCNS: US-Israel - The egocentric-allocentric transformation of the cognitive map

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2022 · $256,895

## Abstract

Animals have the striking ability to know where they are, and to plan where to go and how to get there. These
abilities are likely based on a cognitive map, the brain’s internal representation of space. For 50 years we
have known that hippocampal place cells are a component of the cognitive map, responding when an animal
is in specific locations. We also know about other components of the map – e.g., grid cells, head-direction
cells, and border cells. But we do not understand how the responses of such cells are generated from sensory
experience. One puzzle is that sensory inputs are “egocentric” (centered and oriented in relation to the
individual), whereas the cognitive map is “allocentric” (centered and oriented in relation to an absolute
reference frame in the world). This raises a key question: how does the brain transform egocentric reference
frames into allocentric ones to guide behavior? We focus on the part of the cognitive map representing
boundaries. Boundaries are experienced egocentrically by animals, but in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC)
and the subicular complex, borders are represented by allocentric boundary cells (ABCs). If ABCs can be
generated from egocentric responses in upstream areas, their allocentricity could be propagated to the rest
of the cognitive map via synaptic interactions. Recent work shows that the postrhinal cortex (POR), a principal
area projecting to the MEC, contains cells with egocentric responses that may encode boundaries. In Aim 1,
we propose that these are Egocentric Boundary Cells (EBCs) that efficiently encode orientations and
distances to boundary segments, as subjectively experienced during navigation. We will test this idea by
recording egocentric POR responses in environments of varying complexity, while testing the tuning of
responses to spatial boundaries, and comparing to predictions of efficient coding theory. In Aim 2 we further
propose a mechanism whereby EBC responses in POR are conjunctively and hierarchically combined with
head-direction responses through Hebbian plasticity in the MEC, to produce ABC responses. We will test
this mechanism through environmental manipulations and confusion experiments combined with neural
recordings, for which we will have predictions from theoretical models. We will also perform anatomical
studies and inactivation experiments to test how components of the network connect, and how functionality
is modified when some parts of the network are inactivated. Our approach will achieve a significant milestone,
uncovering circuits, brain areas, and mechanisms connecting sensory experience to the generation of the
brain’s cognitive map, thus informing clinical approaches to deficits in navigation and episodicmemory.
RELEVANCE (See instructions):
This work will develop a systems-level understanding of circuits across brain areas that underpin spatial
cognition, our ability to know where we are and to plan where we go. We must understand how the brain
solves such s...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10440324
- **Project number:** 5R01MH125544-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Vijay Balasubramanian
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $256,895
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10440324

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10440324, CRCNS: US-Israel - The egocentric-allocentric transformation of the cognitive map (5R01MH125544-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10440324. Licensed CC0.

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