Rare Disorder Leaves Woman Lost in Familiar Places

In a story about a rare disorder that makes it difficult for people to recognize even familiar places, NBC’s The Today Show interviews Dartmouth’s Jeffrey Taube, who studies the navigational processes used by rats.

Taube, a professor of psychological and brain sciences, says “the rat’s—and probably people’s—brain cells fire like a compass. There is a neuron that fires any time the rat heads north and another that fires when the rat heads south-southeast.”

When everything is working properly, he says, the brain constructs a map that allows us to find our way through familiar surroundings without needing directions.

“There’s a system that’s important for perceiving where you are, another for keeping track of where you are heading and another for keeping track of the distance you’ve moved,” he tells The Today Show. “Any one of these without the others won’t do you any good.”

Read the full story, published 5/13/13 by The Today Show.