May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser Co-Author New Science Study on Flexible Brain Navigation Signals

A new study co-authored by LASA Members May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser provides new insight into how the brain dynamically directs its internal navigation system towards behaviourally relevant information.

Published in Science on 6 August 2026, the study, “Adaptive modulation of theta sweeps in the brain’s navigation circuit,” was conducted by Abraham Z. Vollan, Michael F. Schellenberger, Richard J. Gardner, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and the Centre for Algorithms in the Cortex at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Using large-scale Neuropixels recordings in freely behaving rats, the researchers examined rapid patterns of neural activity known as theta sweeps. These sweeps occur in populations of grid and place cells involved in spatial navigation and can be understood as brief neural scans of nearby space.

The study shows that these signals are more flexible than previously understood. Rather than following a fixed pattern, theta sweeps and associated directional signals changed rapidly according to behavioural demands. They tracked moving targets during pursuit, anticipated orienting responses while the animals were stationary, and reversed direction during backward movement. Comparable modulation was also observed during rapid eye movement sleep.

The findings suggest that theta sweeps may function as a flexible, attention-like mechanism through which the brain selectively samples its internal cognitive maps. The work contributes to a broader understanding of how neural representations of space can be adapted in real time to changing goals and behaviour.

May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser are internationally recognised for their research on the neural mechanisms underlying spatial representation and navigation. They shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning the brain’s positioning system.

Both are Members of the Luxembourg Academy of Sciences and Arts (LASA).

The new study continues their influential research into how coordinated activity across neural populations enables the brain to represent, navigate and interpret the surrounding world.