Thursday 11th September, 12.00-1.00

The BA Charles Darwin Award Lecture

The "Sat Nav" in our brains

Do you have a poor sense of direction? Do you often forget where you’ve parked the car? New research shows how the brain generates its own internal maps which we use to navigate, remember the past and even imagine the future. Bats and ants both use this ability when navigating incredible distances, and taxi drivers seem to be able to use it more effectively than other people. How does the brain do this, and what happens when it malfunctions?

Presented by Dr Hugo Spiers, University College London

Biography:

Wellcome Trust Advanced Training Fellow
B.Sc. Neuroscience
Ph.D. Neuroscience

Hugo Spiers graduated in neuroscience at University College London (UCL) with first class honours and an award for his research in 1998. In 2002 he received his PhD from UCL in neuroscience, using virtual reality to test the navigation of patients with damage to the temporal lobes. Hugo has published over 20 journal papers on the neural basis of spatial cognition and memory. His postdoctoral training was conducted in Cambridge at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and in London at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging and UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Hugo developed a novel approach to exploring the brain activity of London taxi drivers as they navigated a virtual simulation of London, recreated from the Playstation game 'Getaway'. His research also uncovered evidence for a navigational guidance system in the human brain. In 2007, he was awarded a biomedical fellowship by the Wellcome Trust and became a lab head at the UCL Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience. His current research is investigating how single brain cells are involved in thinking about future goals.