Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40319012›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Hippocampal-entorhinal cognitive maps and cortical motor system represent action plans and their outcomes.

Irina Barnaveli, Simone Viganò, Daniel Reznik, Patrick Haggard, Christian F Doeller

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Categorization is 'baked' into the brain.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Theta-nested gamma oscillations balance prediction and vigilance in spatial navigation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Irina BarnaveliDepartment of Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. barnaveli@cbs.mpg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0004-7392-5247
Simone ViganòDepartment of Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5290-8155
Daniel ReznikDepartment of Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6578-5692
Patrick HaggardInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7798-793X
Christian F DoellerDepartment of Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. doeller@cbs.mpg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4120-4600

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Efficiently interacting with the environment requires weighing and selecting among multiple alternative actions based on their associated outcomes. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these processes are still debated. We show that forming relations between arbitrary action-outcome associations involve building a cognitive map. Using an immersive virtual reality paradigm, participants learned 2D abstract motor action-outcome associations and later compared action combinations while their brain activity was monitored with fMRI. We observe a hexadirectional modulation of the activity in entorhinal cortex while participants compared different action plans. Furthermore, hippocampal activity scales with the 2D similarity between outcomes of these action plans. Conversely, the supplementary motor area represents individual actions, showing a stronger response to overlapping action plans. Crucially, the connectivity between hippocampus and supplementary motor area is modulated by the similarity between the action plans, suggesting their complementary roles in action evaluation. These findings provide evidence for the role of cognitive maps in action selection, challenging classical models of memory taxonomy and its neural bases.

Indexed as

CognitionEntorhinal CortexHippocampusMotor CortexAdultBrain MappingFemaleHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleVirtual RealityYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID40319012
PMCPMC12049502

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.