article_snippet: Finding builds on last year's discovery of the brain’s ‘GPS system’ which comprises clusters of cells that give us a sense of direction.
article_snippet: Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Centre, in New York, focused on the 'head direction system' in mice, which acts as a compass.
article_snippet: The brain cells in the systems fire more whenever a creature’s head points in a certain direction.
article_snippet: The team, led by Karim Benchenane, focused on place cells - which are neurons that fire in response to thinking about, or being in, a specific place – and help animals and humans form internal maps.
article_snippet: Karim Benchenane monitored the activity of these cells when the mice explored an ‘arena’ using electrodes, isolating the cell that fired in a certain arena location.
article_snippet: But now We know how it is working in one of the seemingly simpler senses - head orientation - or our sense of where we look at in any given space.
article_snippet: ‘The direction sense is an essential part of our navigation system, since an essential part of our navigation system can reset our internal compass and maps instantaneously, as, for example, when our emerge from the subway and try to orient our.
article_snippet: The finding could lead to new treatments for navigational problems, which are among the first major symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.
article_snippet: Researchers are also planning experiments to test whether head direction and navigation can be electrically controlled and predicted in advance.
article_snippet: The finding could lead to new treatments for navigational problems, which are among the first major symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders .
highlights_snippet: ‘GPS system’ was only discovered by scientists last year .
  
highlights_snippet: NYU experts studied brain cells that act as a compass in the brains of mice .
  
highlights_snippet: Finding could lead to new treatments for navigational problems in humans .