# Probing human orientation and its neural representation via direct human brain recordings

> **NIH NIH F32** · COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE · 2020 · $65,310

## Abstract

Summary
The goal of this project is to understand how different brain regions represent one’s current direction and location to
support spatial navigation and memory. Recent decades saw the discovery of several spatial representation patterns in the
medial temporal lobe and other deep structures, including spatial cells, such as grid and head-direction cells, and signals in
oscillatory power of local field potentials, such as the movement-related theta rhythm and a recent theta band signal for
goal proximity to boundaries. We recently developed a new method for identifying detailed navigation-related brain
activity typically linked to spatial cells in widespread regions based on large-scale neuronal recordings of field potentials
rather than single-cell recordings, bridging the gap between the two types of signals. I used this method to identify
hexadirectional modulation patterns of the power of human theta-band (5–8 Hz) field potentials, likely generated by the
grid cell network (Maidenbaum et al. 2018, PNAS), and have initial findings of several other similar signals. The grid
signal in local field potential has proven to be robust - replicated both by us and by two other independent groups.
 In this proposal, we seek to leverage this our new approach for identifying specific directional spatial
representations form LFP to interrogate the human neural representation of direction and location across widespread brain
regions using electrocorticographic and depth recordings (ECoG/iEEG) from neurosurgical patients who perform our
novel Virtual and Augmented Reality tasks. Our proposal examines the neural representation of directional spatial
behavior comprehensively. First, we will characterize the neural correlates of several different directionally tuned spatial
representations in the oscillatory power of local field potentials (Aim 1), bridging the gap between single-cell recordings
and other imaging modalities, and between the wide array of neural results from animal-models to the literature on human
behavior and fMRI representations. We will then test the activity of a battery of local field potential based spatial signals,
including our new gridness signal, the signals established by Aim 1 (heading direction, vectors to goals, boundarie and
objects) and several other existing signals (e.g. goal location, planned path distance). We will characterize their attributes
in different scenarios based on models from the extensive ​animal​ literature, and test how they are extended by the
differences in perception and higher-cognitive functions of ​humans​ in practical navigation and spatial memory behavioral
tasks focused on disorientation and remapping of neural representations (Aim 2). Finally, using novel Augmented Reality
(AR) paradigms we will test if behavioral results transfer from virtual environments to augmented tasks in the real world,
in which the subject’s proprioceptive, vestibular and locomotion systems are active. We will test the st...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9970166
- **Project number:** 5F32MH120990-02
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE
- **Principal Investigator:** Shachar M Maidenbaum
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $65,310
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2021-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9970166

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9970166, Probing human orientation and its neural representation via direct human brain recordings (5F32MH120990-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9970166. Licensed CC0.

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