[Verse 1]
Tolman saw the rats in forty-eight
Breaking chains of stimulus fate
Latent learning, detour maze behavior
Internal maps became the savior
Not just response to what they see
Cognitive cartography set free
Neural networks in the brain
Plotting space without the chain
[Chorus]
Grid cells firing, hexagon patterns
Entorhinal cortex, spatial matters
From the hippocampus to abstract thought
Cognitive maps are what we've got
Tolman-Eichenbaum machine
Successor states and what they mean
Structural knowledge, flexible mind
Relational pathways intertwined
[Verse 2]
Constantinescu's morphing birds in flight
Two-dimensional conceptual sight
Human fMRI reveals the code
Grid-like signals on this road
Aronov's frequency dimension space
One-D auditory neural trace
Tank's recordings prove the theory
MEC generalizes clearly
[Chorus]
Grid cells firing, hexagon patterns
Entorhinal cortex, spatial matters
From the hippocampus to abstract thought
Cognitive maps are what we've got
Tolman-Eichenbaum machine
Successor states and what they mean
Structural knowledge, flexible mind
Relational pathways intertwined
[Bridge]
Behrens, Muller synthesize the view
What is cognitive mapping, what does it do?
Organizing knowledge for behavior that bends
Social cognition where navigation transcends
Whittington factors task from sensory streams
Abstract graph structure in computational dreams
[Verse 3]
Stachenfeld's successor representation
Expected occupancy across the nation
Predictive maps in hippocampal space
Future states encoded in this place
Botvinick and Gershman join the quest
Policy-dependent neural test
Where will we be, what will we find?
Temporal difference in the mind
[Verse 4]
Place cells anchor points within the field
Border cells mark boundaries revealed
Head direction cells point the way
Theta rhythms guide the neural play
From local circuits to global schemes
Integrating paths through memory dreams
Schapiro's structured learning shows
How hippocampus creates and knows
[Chorus]
Grid cells firing, hexagon patterns
Entorhinal cortex, spatial matters
From the hippocampus to abstract thought
Cognitive maps are what we've got
Tolman-Eichenbaum machine
Successor states and what they mean
Structural knowledge, flexible mind
Relational pathways intertwined
[Outro]
From rats in mazes to conceptual flight
Neural mechanisms burning bright
Medial entorhinal cortex leads
Mapping worlds where cognition feeds