Researchers Find No Structural Navigation Link

Researchers led by Steven Weisberg published in Neuropsychologia analyzed MRI scans from 90 healthy young adults (mean age 23.1) using deep-learning models (GCNN, 3D CNN) to predict spatial navigation ability measured in a virtual environment. Despite advanced convolutional neural networks, models failed to find a measurable relationship between macroscopic brain structure—including hippocampus and thalamus—and navigation performance. The result suggests functional connectivity may matter more than gross anatomy.