How the Hippocampus Organizes Spatial Information Predicts Ease in Navigating New Environments

“Hippocampal Signal Complexity Predicts Navigational Performance: Evidence From a Two-Week VR Training Program.”

People who learn new places quickly show more flexible and organized activity in the brain’s navigation center, revealing that successful wayfinding depends on how efficiently space is represented, not how hard the brain works.

Evidence from rodents has revealed that the hippocampus processes information in a graded manner along its long-axis, with anterior regions encoding coarse information and posterior regions encoding fine-grained information. During navigation tasks with humans, similar patterns have been shown, with granularity of representation and rate of signal varying along the long-axis. However, the stability of these signals and their relationship to navigational performance remain unclear. In this study, we conducted a two-week training program where 26 participants (6 M; 20 F) learned to navigate through a novel city environment. We investigated inter-voxel similarity (IVS; a measure of representational granularity) and temporal auto-correlation (a measure of signal change) in the hippocampus. Specifically, we examined how these signals were influenced by navigational ability (stronger vs. weaker spatial learners), training session, and navigational dynamics. Our results suggested that stronger learners tended to exhibit an anterior-posterior distinction in IVS in the right hippocampus, whereas weaker learners showed less pronounced patterns. Additionally, lower general IVS levels in the hippocampus were linked to better early learning. These findings suggest that signal complexity in the hippocampus may play a role in successful navigation and that efficient organization of scales of representation could be beneficial for navigation.

1. Do differences in how the hippocampus organizes spatial information predict how well people learn and navigate new environments?

2. Does successful navigation depend more on the strength of brain signals or on how flexibly and efficiently those signals are organized?

3. How do patterns of hippocampal activity change during early learning, later learning, and real-world–like navigation challenges?

Previous research has shown that the hippocampus plays a central role in spatial navigation and that different parts of the hippocampus support broad versus detailed spatial information. Studies in both animals and humans suggested that the front and back of the hippocampus process space differently, but it was unclear how stable these patterns are over time or how strongly they relate to real differences in navigational ability.

This research shows that people who learn new environments more successfully do not necessarily have stronger brain signals, but instead show more flexible and well-organized patterns of hippocampal activity. The findings demonstrate that these brain patterns can predict learning success early on, distinguish strong from weak navigators, and help explain why some people struggle when familiar routes are disrupted. Together, the results highlight that efficient organization of spatial information—rather than sheer brain activity—is key to successful navigation.

Background: Navigation relies on the hippocampus, but prior studies typically examined brief tasks or familiar environments, making it difficult to understand how brain activity supports learning over time. Methods: Participants completed a two-week virtual reality training program in which they learned multiple routes through a realistic city environment using Google Street View. Brain activity was measured using fMRI during early learning, late learning, and free navigation challenges. The study focused on how spatial information was organized across different parts of the hippocampus rather than on overall activity levels. Results: People who learned routes more successfully showed more flexible and differentiated patterns of hippocampal activity. These patterns predicted early learning success and helped explain why some individuals struggled when routes were blocked or disrupted. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that how the brain organizes spatial information over time is more important for navigation success than how strong brain signals are, offering a richer way to understand learning and memory in complex environments.

This research helps explain why some people adapt easily to new places while others struggle, even with repeated exposure. The findings may inform the design of navigation tools, virtual training programs, and educational environments by emphasizing strategies that support flexible spatial understanding rather than rote route memorization. The work may also be relevant for understanding navigation difficulties in aging populations or individuals with memory-related disorders.

The study highlights the importance of measuring how brain activity is organized, not just how active a region is. Future research can build on this approach to examine learning in other domains, such as memory, problem-solving, or skill acquisition, and to explore individual differences in learning ability. The findings also encourage longer-term training studies that better reflect real-world learning.

Although this research is not directly policy-focused, it may inform decisions related to education, cognitive training, and accessibility. Insights into how people learn and navigate complex environments could guide policies supporting cognitive health, aging, and the development of evidence-based training tools in educational or rehabilitation settings.

NIH (1R15NS104979-01)

Ozubko, J. D., Campbell, M., Verhayden, A., Demetri, B., Boyer, M. B., Sivashankar, Y., & Brunec, I. (2026). Hippocampal signal complexity predicts navigational performance: Evidence from a two-week VR training program. Hippocampus, 36(1), e70063. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.70063