The retrosplenial contribution to human navigation: a review of lesion and neuroimaging findings
Abstract
The clinical and neuroimaging literatures are surveyed in order to collate for the first time the available data on retrosplenial involvement in human navigation. Several notable features emerge from consideration of the case reports of relatively pure topographical disorientation in the presence of a retrosplenial lesion. The majority of cases follow damage to the right retrosplenial cortex, with Brodmann's area 30 apparently compromised in most cases. All patients displayed impaired learning of new routes, and defective navigation in familiar environments complaining they could not use preserved landmark recognition to aid orientation. The deficit generally resolved within eight weeks of onset. The majority of functional neuroimaging studies involving navigation or orientation in large-scale space also activate the retrosplenial cortex, usually bilaterally, with good concordance in the locations of the voxel of peak activation across studies, again with Brodmann's area 30 featuring prominently. While there is strong evidence for right medial temporal lobe involvement in navigation, it now seems that the inputs the hippocampus and related structures receive from and convey to right retrosplenial cortex have a similar spatial preference, while the left medial temporal and left retrosplenial cortices seem primarily concerned with more general aspects of episodic memory.
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Unilateral retrosplenial damage can cause topographic disorientation.
“Meanwhile, unilateral retrosplenial damage, which presumably involves the cingulum, can cause topographic disorientation (Maguire, 2001; Takahashi et al., 1997)”
From The cingulum bundle: Anatomy, function, and dysfunction (2018) · cites this paper as Maguire, 2001
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- Authors
- Maguire, E.
- Affiliations
- UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Maguire, Eleanor
- ORCID
- Maguire, Eleanor
- Venue
- Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2001-07
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 225-238
- ISSN
- 0036-5564 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9450
- OpenAlex
- W2084404187
- Cited by
- 584
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 46.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Vestibular and auditory disorders
- Keywords
- retrosplenial cortex, human navigation, spatial orientation, topographical disorientation, route learning, landmark detection, hippocampus, medial temporal lobe, episodic memory, hemispheric lateralization, lesion studies, functional neuroimaging
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Gyrus Cinguli, Homing Behavior, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Models, Neurological, Orientation, Space Perception, Tomography, Emission-Computed
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