Responses of cells in the dorsal hippocampus of rats to restraining tactile stimuli as a function of spatial orientation suggest that the hippocampus provides the rest of the brain with a spatial reference map. The activity of cells in such a map would specify the direction in which the s was pointing relative to environmental landmarks and the occurrence of particular tactile, visual, etc., stimuli while facing in that orientation. It is hypothesized that activation of those cells specifying a particular orientation together with a signal indicating movement or intention to move in space would tend to activate cells specifying adjacent or subsequent spatial orientations. In this way, the map would" anticipate" the sensory stimuli consequent to a particular movement.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)