Since the discovery of three scene-selective regions in the human brain, a central assumption has been that all three regions directly support navigation. We propose instead that cortical scene processing regions support three distinct computational goals (and one not for navigation at all): (i) The parahippocampal place area supports scene categorization, which involves recognizing the kind of place we are in; (ii) the occipital place area supports visually guided navigation, which involves finding our way through the immediately visible environment, avoiding boundaries and obstacles; and (iii) the retrosplenial complex supports map-based navigation, which involves finding our way from a specific place to some distant, out-of-sight place. We further hypothesize that these systems develop along different timelines, with both navigation systems developing slower than the scene categorization system.

自从在人脑中发现三个场景选择区域以来，一个中心假设是所有三个区域都直接支持导航。相反，我们建议皮层场景处理区域支持三个不同的计算目标（一个根本不用于导航）：（i）海马旁区域支持场景分类，这涉及识别我们所处的位置类型；(ii) 枕部区域支持视觉引导导航，包括在直接可见的环境中找到我们的路，避开边界和障碍物；(iii) 脾后复合体支持基于地图的导航，这包括找到从特定地点到某个遥远、看不见的地方的路。我们进一步假设这些系统沿着不同的时间线发展，