Spatial cognition and navigation

Recent articles

Nachum Ulanovsky sits against a black background with one bat in his hands and another with its wings spread above his head.

Diving in with Nachum Ulanovsky

With an eye toward realism, the neuroscientist, who has a new study about bats out today, creates microcosms of the natural world to understand animal behavior.

By Claudia López Lloreda
16 October 2025 | 14 min listen
Eleanor Maguire.

Remembering Eleanor Maguire, ‘trailblazer’ of human memory

Maguire, mastermind of the famous London taxi-driver study, broadened the field and championed the importance of spatial representations in memory.

By Calli McMurray
10 January 2025 | 8 min read
Research image of place cells plotted onto a reference zebrafish larva brain.

‘Place cells’ help guide freely swimming zebrafish larvae

The newly found cells function like those in mammals, revealing that spatial cognition evolved earlier than previously thought.

By Shaena Montanari
28 August 2024 | 5 min read
Picture of bees in flight.

Postdoc’s grad-school sleuthing raises questions about bee waggle-dance data

A journal has flagged two papers with expressions of concern, which note a co-author acknowledged errors.

By Shaena Montanari
4 July 2024 | 6 min read

Dancing in the dark: Honeybees use antennae to decode nestmates’ waggles

The insects align their antennae with their body’s angle to a dancer—information that vector-processing circuitry in the brain deciphers into a flight path, a new study suggests.

By Shaena Montanari
3 April 2024 | 0 min watch
Illustrated portrait of Loren Frank.

The value of math and spatial learning with Loren Frank

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator discusses what drew him to study the brain and his current work at the University of California, San Francisco.

By Brady Huggett
1 April 2024 | 62 min listen

Explore more from The Transmitter

Mouse sensory neurons express the ion channel TPRV1 .

Neurons tune electron transport chain to survive onslaught of noxious stimuli

Nociceptors tamp down the production of reactive oxygen species in response to heat, chemical irritants or toxins.

By Viviane Callier
22 October 2025 | 5 min listen

Vicente Raja brings ecological psychology concepts to neuroscience

He suggests neuroscientists should pay more attention to the principles of Gibsonian ecological psychology, such as affordances, ecological information and resonance, to better explain perception and action.

By Paul Middlebrooks
22 October 2025 | 99 min listen
Illustration of a circuit made of sperm-like lines.

Gene variants accumulate in older men’s sperm; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 20 October.

By Jill Adams
21 October 2025 | 2 min read

privacy consent banner

Privacy Preference

We use cookies to provide you with the best online experience. By clicking “Accept All,” you help us understand how our site is used and enhance its performance. You can change your choice at any time. To learn more, please visit our Privacy Policy.