Researchers Investigate How the Brain Organizes Action Plans

The human brain demonstrates an extraordinary capacity to develop and manage a vast array of complex action plans. Many of our behaviors are based on associations between actions and their outcomes, which are formed and utilized flexibly in various situations. For example, pressing a key on a computer keyboard, tuning a radio, or performing an action with different objects can lead to different results, making action selection a challenging task that involves comparing multiple potential actions and their expected outcomes.

Recent research by Irina Barnaveli, Christian Doeller, Simone Viganò, Daniel Reznik from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, and Patrick Haggard from University College London, explores how the brain organizes these action-outcome relationships. They propose that the brain constructs a cognitive map-like structure in the hippocampal system to manage and evaluate multiple action plans efficiently. Their findings, published in Nature Communications, indicate that these maps in the hippocampus communicate with the motor system during action assessment, emphasizing that goal-oriented action planning involves multiple neural pathways.

Barnaveli explains, "The hippocampus is involved in memory formation and spatial navigation. Our study suggests that similar mapping mechanisms are used to organize and select action plans, linking perception to motor behavior." In their experiments, participants performed a virtual reality task where they learned to control a flying and catching game using different actions. Using fMRI scans, researchers detected brain activity patterns consistent with cognitive maps, demonstrating that the brain abstracts and organizes actions in a map-like form. Notably, the closer two actions are within this map, the more similar they are perceived by participants. The hippocampal maps also interact with the motor system to relate various actions, supporting flexible and efficient decision-making.

These results imply that cognitive maps are fundamental not only for spatial navigation but also for organizing and selecting a wide range of actions crucial for daily behavior. By understanding how the brain creates and uses these maps, scientists are gaining insight into the neural basis of goal-directed behavior, which integrates motor planning, memory, and decision-making processes.

For more detailed information, see the original study: Hippocampal-entorhinal cognitive maps and cortical motor system represent action plans and their outcomes.