---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '21895'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: The mammalian brain organises knowledge about entities in the world and relationships
    between them using cognitive maps. When forming a cognitive map, there is a necessary
    trade-off between extending the map to make novel inferences, and storing a veridical
    copy of past experience. However, the neural mechanisms that control this trade-off
    remain unknown. Using a cross-scale approach that combines a pharmacological intervention
    in humans with neural network modelling, we show that the neuromodulator noradrenaline
    elicits a significant ‘spread of association’ across hippocampal cognitive maps.
    This neural spread of association can be explained by changes in synaptic plasticity
    that predict overgeneralisation in behaviour. Thus, elevated noradrenaline during
    learning increases the ‘smoothing kernel’ for plasticity across the cognitive
    map, allowing disparate memories to become linked and distorted.
acknowledgement: 'We would like to thank Chamith Halahakoon, Phil Cowen, Angharad
  De Cates, Beata Godlewska, Riccardo De Giorgi, Katherine Smith and Edoardo Ostinelli
  for enabling this study by providing medical cover. We would like to thank Douglas
  F. Tomé and Everton J. Agnes for their guidance and advice with earlier versions
  of the neural network model. We would like to thank Rob Froemke for helpful discussion
  when preparing the experiments. We thank Leonie Glitz and Valentina Mancini for
  comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. R.S.K. was supported by an EPSRC/MRC-funded
  studentship (EP/L016052/1). P.P. was supported by the Cambridge Trust, Trinity Henry
  Barlow Scholarship and Trinity Hall Brockhouse Scholarship. L.C. is supported by
  the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (Portuguese State Budget: UID/PSI/01662/2020;
  Research fellowship: 2021.00415.CEECIND). W.T.C. is funded by the Wellcome Trust
  [225924/Z/22/Z]. H.C.B. is supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/W008939/1)
  and the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund. H.C.B. and J.X.O. are supported
  by the Medical Research Council (MR/W01971X/1). The study was supported by the NIHR
  Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR203316). The views expressed are those
  of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health
  and Social Care. The Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging is supported by
  core funding from the Wellcome Trust (203139/Z/16/Z and 203139/A/16/Z). This research
  was funded in part by the Wellcome Trust. For the purpose of open access, the author(s)
  have applied a CC BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript
  version arising from this submission.'
article_number: '3961'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Renée S.
  full_name: Koolschijn, Renée S.
  last_name: Koolschijn
- first_name: Prakriti
  full_name: Parthasarathy, Prakriti
  last_name: Parthasarathy
- first_name: Michael
  full_name: Browning, Michael
  last_name: Browning
- first_name: Xenia
  full_name: Przygodda, Xenia
  last_name: Przygodda
- first_name: Liliana P.
  full_name: Capitão, Liliana P.
  last_name: Capitão
- first_name: William T.
  full_name: Clarke, William T.
  last_name: Clarke
- first_name: Tim P
  full_name: Vogels, Tim P
  id: CB6FF8D2-008F-11EA-8E08-2637E6697425
  last_name: Vogels
  orcid: 0000-0003-3295-6181
- first_name: Jill X.
  full_name: O’Reilly, Jill X.
  last_name: O’Reilly
- first_name: Helen C.
  full_name: Barron, Helen C.
  last_name: Barron
citation:
  ama: Koolschijn RS, Parthasarathy P, Browning M, et al. Noradrenaline causes a spread
    of association in the hippocampal cognitive map. <i>Nature Communications</i>.
    2026;17. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x">10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x</a>
  apa: Koolschijn, R. S., Parthasarathy, P., Browning, M., Przygodda, X., Capitão,
    L. P., Clarke, W. T., … Barron, H. C. (2026). Noradrenaline causes a spread of
    association in the hippocampal cognitive map. <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer
    Nature. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x</a>
  chicago: Koolschijn, Renée S., Prakriti Parthasarathy, Michael Browning, Xenia Przygodda,
    Liliana P. Capitão, William T. Clarke, Tim P Vogels, Jill X. O’Reilly, and Helen
    C. Barron. “Noradrenaline Causes a Spread of Association in the Hippocampal Cognitive
    Map.” <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature, 2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x</a>.
  ieee: R. S. Koolschijn <i>et al.</i>, “Noradrenaline causes a spread of association
    in the hippocampal cognitive map,” <i>Nature Communications</i>, vol. 17. Springer
    Nature, 2026.
  ista: Koolschijn RS, Parthasarathy P, Browning M, Przygodda X, Capitão LP, Clarke
    WT, Vogels TP, O’Reilly JX, Barron HC. 2026. Noradrenaline causes a spread of
    association in the hippocampal cognitive map. Nature Communications. 17, 3961.
  mla: Koolschijn, Renée S., et al. “Noradrenaline Causes a Spread of Association
    in the Hippocampal Cognitive Map.” <i>Nature Communications</i>, vol. 17, 3961,
    Springer Nature, 2026, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x">10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x</a>.
  short: R.S. Koolschijn, P. Parthasarathy, M. Browning, X. Przygodda, L.P. Capitão,
    W.T. Clarke, T.P. Vogels, J.X. O’Reilly, H.C. Barron, Nature Communications 17
    (2026).
date_created: 2026-05-20T14:30:37Z
date_published: 2026-05-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-05-21T07:05:01Z
day: '01'
ddc:
- '570'
department:
- _id: TiVo
doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x
external_id:
  pmid:
  - '41832186'
file:
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fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70659-x
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '        17'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '05'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
pmid: 1
publication: Nature Communications
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2041-1723
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Noradrenaline causes a spread of association in the hippocampal cognitive map
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  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
  short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 17
year: '2026'
...