Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and the University of Tokyo have found a mathematical connection between spatial navigation and language processing, creating a model called “Disentangled Successor Information” (DSI).

This model generates patterns that closely resemble the activity of actual brain cells involved in both spatial awareness (place cells and grid cells) and concept recognition (concept cells).

The DSI model shows that the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex— brain regions previously known primarily for spatial navigation —likely use comparable computational processes to handle both physical spaces and meaningful ideas or words. Using this shared framework, both types of information can be processed through similar mathematical computations, which could be achieved in the brain by partial activation of specific groups of neurons.