# Neural signatures of virtual and real-world navigation and spatial learning

> **NIH NIH F99** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $47,752

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Navigation is one of our most foundational behavioral capacities, and substantial work using rodent models
has established the hippocampus as a critical contributor to this complex behavior. However, efforts to model
these effects in humans have been limited, both in scope and generalizability. Little work has explored the
interaction in the hippocampus between navigation and foundational non-navigation learning processes, like
statistical learning, and it therefore remains unclear how navigation processes are integrated with and may be
supported by these learning mechanisms. Further, studies in humans have primarily consisted of virtual
navigation, limiting applicability and relevance of the established neural signals to real-world navigation
behavior. Understanding how navigation and statistical learning compete or cooperate in the human
hippocampus will significantly inform models of memory systems and consolidation, and addressing these
questions in a real-world paradigm will close a wide gap in our understanding of human navigation. This
requires a multimodal approach, coupling the high temporal and spatial resolution of intracranial EEG (iEEG) in
epilepsy patients with quantitative behavioral measures of human navigation and learning. In my doctoral
dissertation work thus far, I have used behavioral, computational, and iEEG methods to test hypotheses about
the interaction between statistical learning and spatial navigation in the human hippocampus and related
structures. My work has produced impactful findings via novel computational modeling techniques and
innovative multivariate iEEG analyses. In my proposed research and training program, I will use a cutting-edge
research method to collect direct neural recordings from chronic brain implants in human participants as they
physically ambulate in the real world. Through my multidisciplinary research mentors, this experience will
provide me training with novel research methodology and ecologically valid experiment design, as well as
clinical perspectives, considerations, and practices for working with patients with epilepsy. In my proposed
postdoctoral training phase, I will pursue a more clinical focus, returning to the question of how modern
cognitive neuroscience can guide assessments and therapies for hippocampal disease. I will gain theoretical
and practical experience with high-resolution imaging and data collection with hippocampal atrophy
populations, including epilepsy and Alzheimer’s patients. This research program has the potential to inform and
substantially extend models of human navigation and memory by exploring the intersection of multiple
processing demands on the hippocampus as a shared neural resource, and how these processes operate in
the real world. This work represents the convergence of disparate literatures on hippocampal function, and
informs diagnosis and treatment of hippocampal patients. This program will equip me not only with expertise in
behavi...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10705013
- **Project number:** 5F99NS125835-02
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Kathryn Nicole Graves
- **Activity code:** F99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $47,752
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10705013

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10705013, Neural signatures of virtual and real-world navigation and spatial learning (5F99NS125835-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10705013. Licensed CC0.

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