Summary
A cognitive map, representing an environment around oneself, is necessary for spatial navigation. However, compared with its constituent elements such as individual landmarks, neural substrates of the coherent spatial information remain largely unknown. The present study investigated how the brain codes map-like representations in a virtual environment specified by relative positions of three objects. Representational similarity analysis revealed the object-based spatial environment in the hippocampus (HPC) when participants located their self-positions within it, while the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) represented it when they recollected a target object’s location relative to their self-body. During the recollection, task-dependent functional connectivity increased between the two areas implying exchange of self- and target-location signals between HPC and mPFC. Together, the coherent cognitive map may be recruited in HPC and mPFC for complementary functions when we relate ourselves with a target object including person for navigation, and presumably for social interactions.