Yunzhe Liu

Title:

Grid-Like Code Development Improves Knowledge Mapping and Assimilation

Abstract:

Piaget described an ‘intellectual evolution’ during development, characterised by the emergence of structured knowledge or schemas and the ability to assimilate new information. However, the neural mechanisms driving this development and their connections to broader intelligence measures, such as Intelligence Quotient (IQ), remain largely unexplored. In our study of 203 participants aged 8 to 25 years, we demonstrate that the maturation of knowledge mapping and assimilation is associated with the development of grid-like codes in the entorhinal cortex (EC) and distance coding in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The grid-like code, similar to grid cell representations found in animals, represents a two-dimensional (2D) knowledge map. These grid codes remain stable between maps, functioning as a schema, and increase with age. The grid-like schema supports the mPFC in building a concrete map of existing knowledge by encoding their distances. When introduced to new information, participants integrated them into existing grid patterns in the EC. This assimilation ability improves with age and aligns with the mPFC's growing capacity to connect new and existing knowledge. The maturation of these neural representations is closely tied to the structural development of the EC and mPFC, as well as their connectivity via the cingulum bundle. Furthermore, these neural developments predict particular IQ scores that reflect children's abstract reasoning and understanding of relational concepts in the real world. Our findings reveal that the development of grid-like codes underpins knowledge mapping and assimilation, bridging the gap between cellular mechanisms and cognitive development, and linking basic neuroscience with real-world IQ measures in humans.