Children have the brainpower to navigate maps at a very young age

New research reveals that children as young as five already have the brain systems in place to support map-based navigation. For years, it’s been assumed that children don’t develop the brain systems for navigating large spaces – like towns or neighborhoods – until they’re around 12 years old.

But that idea may need some serious rethinking after this surprising discover from Emory University.

Studying mental maps in children

Using brain scans and a fun, virtual environment called “Tiny Town,” the scientists designed experiments to see whether young kids could mentally map a town and navigate its streets.

The results showed that even five-year-olds were able to use the retrosplenial complex (RSC), a brain region involved in spatial navigation, to get around a virtual world.

“While large-scale navigation abilities certainly continue to develop throughout childhood, our findings show that the underlying neural system is established remarkably early,” said Yaelan Jung, first author and postdoctoral fellow in Emory’s Department of Psychology.

“Rather than taking a decade or more, map-based navigation is underway in half that time,” noted Daniel Dilks, associate professor of psychology and senior author of the study.

“Five-year-olds have the brain system enabling them to find their way around a tiny, virtual town. They not only know that the ice cream store in the mountain region is different than the ice cream store in the lake region, they know how to navigate the streets to get to each of them.”

Building maps in the brain

Understanding how the brain helps us recognize places and navigate the world is a key focus for researchers. One major tool for exploring these questions is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This noninvasive technique tracks changes in blood flow in the brain to identify which regions are active during different tasks.

Previous research had shown that three areas in the visual cortex specialize in handling scenes and navigation. The parahippocampal place area, or PPA, helps us recognize and categorize places.

The retrosplenial complex, or RSC, allows us to map places within a larger space and figure out how to travel from one location to another. Meanwhile, the occipital place area, or OPA, helps us move through spaces without bumping into obstacles.

“Two fundamental questions in neuroscience are how knowledge is organized in the brain and the origins of that knowledge,” said Dilks. “In other words, what knowledge are you born with and how does knowledge develop as you grow?”

“We can’t fix most neurological problems right now. But by continuing to learn more about how the brain develops and functions normally, we keep moving closer to being able to repair it when something goes wrong.”

When walking is harder than mapping

Interestingly, the same research team previously found that the brain system responsible for helping kids walk around and avoid obstacles doesn’t mature until age 8.

“It seems counterintuitive,” says Dilks. “Most children can walk before the age of two. And yet the brain system helping you walk around your immediate surroundings doesn’t start appearing adultlike until relatively late.”

That puzzling timeline led the researchers to wonder if the brain might support more advanced map-like navigation skills in children earlier than previously thought.

After all, children often experience the world through strollers, car rides, or being carried, helping them form mental maps even before they’re mobile themselves. To test this idea, the team designed a special experiment for five-year-olds.

Welcome to Tiny Town

The experiment began with a virtual environment called Neuralville, which featured eight buildings and a town square. However, the team soon realized it was too complex for young children.

So, they simplified it, creating a triangular map called Tiny Town for the children to explore. Each corner of Tiny Town had a unique setting – a mountain, a tree, or a lake – to help kids orient themselves.

The town had six buildings in total, including two each of fire stations, playgrounds, and ice cream stores. The goal was to make science approachable and fun for the kids.

“We want to get at the scientific questions that we’re trying to answer,” explained Jung, “but it’s also important that a child who participates in a study has a good time. We want them to leave with a good impression of science.”

The kids first explored Tiny Town on a computer, using arrow keys to “walk” through the streets. Then came the tests. Researchers showed them still images of buildings and asked if they had seen them before, or whether they were located in specific areas of the town.

Most of the children passed with ease. They then advanced to the next stage: learning how to stay still inside a brain scanner.

Turning brain scans into a game

To prepare the kids for the scanner, the research team turned the training into a playful challenge. An adult would yell “Freeze!” and the child had to stay perfectly still – just like in the real scanner.

“The kids loved it! They especially liked to freeze the adults in the room,” said Jung. “They’d point at one of us and say, ‘It’s your turn now!’”

The children were told that the scanner was like a camera, and that staying still was necessary to get a clear photo while they performed tasks inside. To make it cozy, they were given a pillow and blanket and told they’d be watching a movie in their own private theater.

Inside the scanner, kids were shown images from Tiny Town and asked to push a button if certain combinations were accurate – for example, matching a fire station with the correct landscape setting. They practiced this task beforehand in a mock scanner to feel comfortable.

The brain scans revealed something remarkable: the five-year-olds were using their RSC to navigate, just like adults do. The children were building maps in their minds and using them to figure out where things were located.

Moving forward: Children building maps

Beyond the scientific insight, the experiment was a joy for everyone involved. “It was really fun to work with the children,” noted Jung. “I learned that the age of five is a magical time to scan a child. They don’t tend to be afraid of new things.”

The research team is now planning a new project involving toddlers. That’s proven to be a bit trickier.

“Between the ages of two and three, children basically don’t listen to you,” said Jung, who is also the mother of a three-year-old.

To help the toddlers feel comfortable, the researchers are experimenting with cardboard scanners, cartoons, and Cheerios. The ultimate goal is to understand how the brain’s navigation system grows from infancy to adulthood – and how it might differ in children with developmental conditions.

“It’s fascinating to explore how humans use different parts of the brain for complex behaviors and how that changes with age and experiences,” said Jung. “We’re laying the groundwork for clinical applications, including getting a better understanding of typical versus atypical neural development.”

The full study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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