Die Forscher entdecken, warum mentale Karten mit dem Alter verblassen: Im Vergleich junger, mittlerer und alter Mäuse stellten die Forscher fest

> The medial entorhinal cortex is an essential part of the brain’s navigation system. It contains a variety of cells that track different information, including the animal’s speed and head direction, as well as the dimensions and borders of a space. For the new study, the researchers focused on so-called grid cells, which create a map of the environment, almost like a longitude and latitude system.

>But on a more challenging task in which the mice were randomly alternated between two different tracks they had already learned, each with a different reward location, the elderly mice were stymied — seemingly unable to determine which track they were on.
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>“In this case, the task was more similar to remembering where you parked your car in two different parking lots or where your favorite coffeeshop is in two different cities,” Giocomo said.

>The findings seem to align with human behavior. “Older people often can navigate familiar spaces, like their home or the neighborhood they’ve always lived in, but it’s really hard for them to learn to navigate a new place, even with experience,” Giocomo said.
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>In contrast, both young and middle-aged mice understood the assignment by day six, and their grid cell activity swiftly matched whichever track they were on.

[Spatial coding dysfunction and network instability in the aging medial entorhinal cortex | Nature Communications](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63229-0)