Abstract:

When choosing from a menu in an unfamiliar restaurant, we often rely on our memory of prior dining experiences to infer which options are likely to suit our preferences. Such memory-based generalisation is a cornerstone of adaptive behaviour, allowing us to navigate novel situations without relearning strategies from scratch. In this talk, I explore how the human brain enables such behaviour. Drawing on evidence from a series of neuroimaging and behavioural studies, I will show that the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex construct cognitive maps that, beyond encoding spatial information, also represent rich knowledge about the structure of the world extracted from our experiences that can be used to guide generalisation and novel inference. I will conclude by discussing how disruptions in these processes may underlie maladaptive behaviour in psychopathology.