[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# A Hippocampal-Parietal Network for Reference Frame Coordination

## Details

**Authors** Zheng et al.

**Year** 2025

**Publisher** The Journal of Neuroscience

**Discipline** Neuroscience

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1782-24.2025) 
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1782-24.2025

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Navigating space and forming memories based on spatial experience are crucial for survival, including storing memories in an allocentric (map-like) framework and conversion into egocentric (body-centered) action. The hippocampus and parietal cortex (PC) comprise a network for coordinating these reference frames, though the mechanism remains unclear. We used a task requiring remembering previous spatial locations to make correct future action and observed that hippocampus can encode the allocentric place, while PC encodes upcoming actions and relays this to hippocampus. Transformation from location to action unfolds gradually, with “Came From” signals diminishing and future action representations strengthening. PC sometimes encodes previous spatial locations in a route-based reference frame and conveys this to hippocampus. The signal for the future location appears first in PC, and then in hippocampus, in the form of an egocentric direction of future goal locations, suggesting egocentric encoding recently observed in hippocampus may originate in PC (or another “upstream” structure). Bidirectional signaling is apparent between PC and hippocampus and suggests a coordinated mechanism for integrating allocentric, route-centered, and egocentric spatial reference frames at the network level during navigation.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To locate the neural mechanism that converts an agent-centered vantage point into a map-centered representation.

### What they found (results)

In behaving rats, parietal cortex encoded egocentric route/future-action signals and relayed them to hippocampus while allocentric signals decayed, demonstrating a directional transformation between egocentric and allocentric reference frames.

## Commentary

### In short

The brain transforms between an egocentric point of view and an allocentric map (point → view).

### In more detail

Perspective is the pairing of a point (egocentric self-as-origin) with a view (allocentric map read from it); the study shows the brain physically transforms between these two reference frames. Purpose: To locate the neural mechanism that converts an agent-centered vantage point into a map-centered representation. Finding: In behaving rats, parietal cortex encoded egocentric route/future-action signals and relayed them to hippocampus while allocentric signals decayed, demonstrating a directional transformation between egocentric and allocentric reference frames. [Added 2026-07-30 as new evidence beyond the original 109. DSRP structural basis: P (Point→View transformation): egocentric point (ṗ) converted to allocentric view (v) as a neural computation.]

**Patterns it shows** P

**Added** 2026-07-30

**How to cite this** Zheng et al. (2025). A Hippocampal-Parietal Network for Reference Frame Coordination. The Journal of Neuroscience.