Many behavioral studies suggest that using landmarks to navigate through large-scale spaces—known as map-based navigation—is not established until around age 12.

A neuroscience study at Emory University counters that assumption. Through experiments combining brain scans and a virtual environment the researchers dubbed Tiny Town, they showed that five-year-olds have a brain system that supports map-based navigation.

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published the finding, the first neural evidence that this cognitive ability is in place in such young children.