Neural Mechanisms of Hierarchical Planning in a Virtual Subway Network
Open accessAbstract
Planning allows actions to be structured in pursuit of a future goal. However, in natural environments, planning over multiple possible future states incurs prohibitive computational costs. To represent plans efficiently, states can be clustered hierarchically into "contexts". For example, representing a journey through a subway network as a succession of individual states (stations) is more costly than encoding a sequence of contexts (lines) and context switches (line changes). Here, using functional brain imaging, we asked humans to perform a planning task in a virtual subway network. Behavioral analyses revealed that humans executed a hierarchically organized plan. Brain activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and premotor cortex scaled with the cost of hierarchical plan representation and unique neural signals in these regions signaled contexts and context switches. These results suggest that humans represent hierarchical plans using a network of caudal prefrontal structures. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
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Representations of navigation plans, the regionalization of physical environments and the neural representations of physical environments are all typically hierarchical, whereby a high-level structure encompasses multiple mid-level or low-level features.
“Representations of navigation plans 159 , the regionalization of physical environments and the neural representations of physical environments 29,160 are all typically hierarchical -whereby a high-level structure encompasses multiple mid-level or low-level features.”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [159]
The regionalization of space provides an efficient heuristic for planning actions in spatial navigation.
“The regionalization of space provides an efficient heuristic for planning actions in spatial navigation 29,131,159,205,206 , and computational models are particularly useful in understanding the correlations between physical regions and substructures, and their representations in the brain.”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [159]
Navigation planning follows a hierarchical representation of space that consists of a series of contexts that, in humans, is mediated by the dorsomedial PFC.
“Studies of navigation support the idea that navigation planning follows a hierarchical representation of space that consist of a series of contexts that, in humans, is mediated by the dorsomedial PFC 128,133,159,204 .”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [159]
Progress is being made in both neuroscience and machine learning on finding potential mechanisms for hierarchical planning and goal-seeking.
“Progress is being made in both neuroscience and machine learning on finding potential mechanisms for this type of hierarchical planning and goal-seeking.”
From Toward an integration of deep learning and neuroscience (2016) · cites this paper as Balaguer et al., 2016
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References 56 · Cited by 163
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Dickinson A. Balleine B. The role of learning in motivation Gallistel C.R. Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology Vol 3: Learning, Motivation and Emotion 2002 Wiley 497 533
- Authors
- Balaguer, J., Spiers, H., Hassabis, D., & Summerfield, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Google DeepMind (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Balaguer, Jan
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-05
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 893-903
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4882377
- OpenAlex
- W2400568150
- Cited by
- 163
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 10.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- hierarchical planning, plan representation, context switching, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, premotor cortex, planning costs, context encoding, goal-directed behavior
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Behavior, Brain, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Nerve Net, Task Performance and Analysis, Young Adult
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