Successful navigation can require realizing the current path choice was a mistake and the best strategy is to retreat along the recent path: ‘back-track’. Despite the wealth of studies on the neural correlates of navigation little is known about backtracking. To explore the neural underpinnings of backtracking we tested humans during functional magnetic resonance imaging on their ability to navigate to a set of goal locations in a virtual desert island riven by lava which constrained the paths that could be taken. We found that on a subset of trials, participants spontaneously chose to backtrack and that the majority of these choices were optimal. During backtracking, activity increased in frontal regions and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, while activity was suppressed in regions associated with the core default-mode network. Using the same task, magnetoencephalography and a separate group of participants, we found that power in the alpha band was significantly decreased immediately prior to such backtracking events. These results highlight the importance for navigation of brain networks previously identified in processing internally-generated errors and that such error-detection responses may involve shifting the brain from default-mode states to aid successful spatial orientation.

Central to the concept of the “cognitive map” is that it confers behavioral flexibility, allowing animals to take efficient detours, exploit shortcuts, and avoid alluring, but unhelpful, paths. The neural underpinnings of such naturalistic and flexible behavior remain unclear. In two neuroimaging experiments, we tested human participants on their ability to navigate to a set of goal locations in a virtual desert island riven by lava, which occasionally spread to block selected paths (necessitating detours) or receded to open new paths (affording real shortcuts or false shortcuts to be avoided). Detours activated a network of frontal regions compared with shortcuts. Activity in the right dorsolateral PFC specifically increased when participants encountered tempting false shortcuts that led along suboptimal paths that needed to be differentiated from real shortcuts. We also report modulation in event-related fields and theta power in these situations, providing insight to the temporal evolution of response to encountering detours and shortcuts. These results help inform current models as to how the brain supports navigation and planning in dynamic environments.

Making errors is part of human nature, and it is thus important to know how to get the best out of them. Experimental evidence has shown that generating errors can enhance learning when these are followed by corrective feedback. However, little is known about the specific conditions and mechanisms that underlie this benefit of experiencing errors. This review aimed to shed some light on this type of learning. First, we highlight certain conditions that may influence errorful learning. These include the timing of corrective feedback, error types, learner awareness about errorful learning, motivation to learn the study material, differences in special populations (e.g., amnesia), incidental versus intentional encoding, the importance of selecting an appropriate final test procedure, whether the study material needs to be semantically related, and if it is necessary to recover the previous errors at the time of retrieval. We then consider four explanatory theories of errorful learning: (1) The Mediator Effectiveness hypothesis, (2) the Search Set theory, (3) the Recursive Reminding theory, and (4) the Error Prediction theory. According to these theories, two factors are decisive for observing the benefits of errorful learning: the level of a pre-existing semantic relationship between the study materials, and whether the error must be explicitly recovered on the final test. To conclude, we discuss some limitations of using a pretesting procedure to study errorful learning and we reflect on further research. This review brings us closer to understanding why experiencing errors confers a memory advantage.

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is one of the most severe forms of anterograde amnesia seen in clinical practice, yet patients may show evidence of spared learning during the amnesic episode. The scope of spared learning in such a severe form of amnesia remains uncertain, and it is also unclear whether findings from single-case studies hold up in group studies of TGA patients. In this group study, we found evidence that extended the domain of spared learning in TGA to include the mere exposure effect, whereby enhanced preference is primed by prior exposure to stimuli. We demonstrate this effect during an acute episode in a group of TGA patients, where they showed enhanced preference for previously exposed faces, despite markedly impaired performance on standard anterograde memory tests.