Why we get lost
This chapter presents the argument that humans have a sense of direction that is based on the head direction cell system. It suggests that there are two ways in which people get lost. In the first, their head direction cell system fails to update properly, and they become incorrectly oriented, or misoriented. In misorientation, the sense of direction and space is still present, but it is incorrect. The second way in which people get lost is when their spatial representations break down. This is referred to as disorientation, and reflects a breakdown in the coherent internal representation of the outside world.
Keywords: disorientation, misorientation, lost, head direction cells, sense of direction, neural compass
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