Cognitive Maps

Cognitive maps in the context of biology and AI.

In biology, cognitive maps are what provide us with spatial knowledge and perception. These maps are comprised of 4 cells that in conjuction provide us with a sense of spatial perception: place cells, grid cells, direction cells, and boundary cells. Place cells let us know when objects in a given location. Grid cells provide a coordinate-like system for mapping the environment.

In the field of AI, one of the most common implementations of cognitive maps is akin to an embedding specialized for space. Each row is an object and each column is a location in a given space. Thus, a corresponding cell tells us whether a given object is at a given location.