Day 43 of 150 Spatial Difficulty 10/10
Grid cells tile space in a hexagonal pattern
Quick answer
Grid cells tile space in a hexagonal pattern. Today's question (Grid cells) asks about a finding from Hafting, T., Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Moser, M.-B., & Moser, E. I. in 2005. The correct option is Hexagonal lattice tiling the entire environment — full explanation, primary source, and glossary cross-links below.
Today's question
Hafting et al. (2005) recorded neurons in the medial entorhinal cortex that fire at locations forming a:
Reveal the answer and explanation
Correct: B — Hexagonal lattice tiling the entire environment
Each grid cell fires at multiple locations whose centres tile the environment in a hexagonal grid. Spacing and orientation are stable across visits but vary between cells, with grids of progressively wider spacing arranged along the dorsoventral axis of medial entorhinal cortex. Grid fields persist in darkness and on novel surfaces, indicating a self-motion-based metric for space — a coordinate system independent of any single cue. The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognised the place- and grid-cell discoveries by John O'Keefe and the Mosers.
About the source
Hafting, T., Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Moser, M.-B., & Moser, E. I. (2005). Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature, 436(7052), 801–806.
Every Cognition Bible question cites a primary source — a paper, book chapter, or monograph that exists, that we can point to on Google Scholar, and whose finding the question accurately summarizes. No fabricated authority strings, no name-drops without paper-level grounding.
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