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<\/div>A micrograph of a section through a mouse\u2019s brain highlighting neural pathways (green)<\/p>\n
MARK AND MARY STEVENS NEUROIMAGING AND INFORMATICS INSTITUTE\/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
Analysing a mouse\u2019s brain activity tells scientists where the animal is located and the exact direction it is looking. With further research, the findings could one day help robots navigate autonomously.<\/p>\n
Mammalian brains<\/a> use two main types of neurons for navigation: \u201chead direction cells\u201d show where an animal is facing and \u201cgrid cells\u201d help provide a two-dimensional brain map of where it is located.<\/p>\n To learn more about the firing of these neurons, Vasileios Maroulas<\/a> at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his colleagues \u2013 together with the US Army Research Laboratory \u2013 analysed data from a previous study.<\/p>\n In this experiment, probes were inserted into several mice\u2019s brains. Data on their neural firing patterns were then paired with video footage showing their locations and head positions as they moved around an open environment.<\/p>\n From this, Maroulas and his colleagues developed an artificial intelligence<\/a> algorithm that can work out where a mouse is looking and where it is located.<\/p>\n In effect, it is like the drop pin and directional arrow on a smartphone\u2019s map app, except instead of connecting to a GPS satellite, scientists analyse a subject\u2019s brain activity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis method allows us to not be dependent on a preloaded map or updating the GPS coordinates based on, say, satellite data,\u201d says Maroulas. \u201cIn some sense, the algorithm \u2018thinks\u2019 and recognises space as a mammalian brain would.\u201d<\/p>\n The AI could eventually enable intelligent systems to navigate autonomously, he says. \u201cIn other words, we take advantage of how the mammalian brain processes data and incorporate it in the architecture of the algorithm.\u201d<\/p>\n