Neuroscience
Memory and the Shape of a Place
Grid cells tile space in hexagons. The same code may organize thought itself.
by Dr. Marcus Feld, Computational Neuroscience · April 9, 2026 · 9 min read
Deep in the entorhinal cortex, neurons fire in a hexagonal lattice as an animal moves — a coordinate system the brain builds for itself.
The striking discovery is that this same machinery activates when subjects navigate abstract spaces: relationships between concepts, not just positions in a room.
If true, the brain reuses a spatial code to organize meaning, mapping ideas as if they had locations.
It suggests that to remember is, in some literal sense, to know where something is — even when the something is a thought.