Flexible navigation with neuromodulated cognitive maps

Animals develop specialized cognitive maps during navigation, constructing environmental representations that facilitate efficient exploration and goal-directed planning. The hippocampal CA1 region is implicated as the primary neural substrate for cognitive mapping, housing spatially tuned cells that adapt based on behavioral patterns and internal states. Computational approaches to modeling these biological systems have employed various methodologies. Although labeled graphs with local spatial information and deep neural networks have provided computational frameworks for spatial navigation, significant limitations persist in modeling one-shot adaptive mapping. We introduce a biologically inspired place cell architecture that develops cognitive maps during exploration of novel environments. Our model implements a simulated agent for reward-driven navigation that forms spatial representations online. The architecture incorporates behaviorally relevant information through neuromodulatory signals that respond to environmental boundaries and reward locations. Learning combines rapid Hebbian plasticity, lateral competition, and targeted modulation of place cells. Analysis of the capabilities of the model on a variety of environments demonstrates our approach’s efficiency, achieving in one shot what traditional RL models require thousands of epochs to learn. The simulation results show that the agent successfully explores and navigates to the target locations in various environments, showing adaptability when the reward positions change. Analysis of neuromodulated place cells reveals dynamic changes in neuronal density and tuning field size after behaviorally significant events. These findings align with experimental observations of reward effects on hippocampal spatial cells while providing computational support for the efficacy of biologically inspired approaches to cognitive mapping.