Forming, selecting and updating cognitive maps to support flexible behavior: relevance for anxiety

In dynamic environments, relying solely on simple stimulus–response associations is often insufficient because identical experiences rarely recur. Instead, we need internal models that allow us to flexibly generalize past knowledge and plan for future events. The hippocampus plays a crucial role in this process by constructing cognitive maps that guide adaptive, goal-directed behavior. However, in complex and ever-changing real-world situations, no single map can capture all the relevant information. The brain must therefore maintain multiple cognitive maps, each tied to its own latent context. Moreover, since uncertainty about the hidden context underlying the observations often exists, the brain must continually decide which map to rely on for guiding behavior and to what degree it should be updated or renewed. Here we review the role the hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) play in providing cognitive maps and signaling inferred contexts, and how prediction errors and neuromodulators drive their continual arbitration. Disruptions in these processes, such as altered map formation, distorted map content and disrupted map arbitration, may drive overgeneralization of fear and resulting avoidance behaviors common in anxiety.