engKransberg, JonasSjøli Bråthen, Anne CecilieFalch, Emilie SognØverbye, Knut E. Ø.Garrido, Pablo F.Fjell, Anders M.Stangl, MatthiasWolbers, ThomasSneve, Markus H.Walhovd, Kristine B.Failure to detect entorhinal grid-like signals in a passive navigation human fMRI studyinfo:eu-repo/classification/ddc/610Grid cells in the human entorhinal cortex (EC) play a critical role in spatial navigation and memory. The EC is also one of the first regions affected by ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. This pre-registered functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aimed to detect grid-cell-like signals (GLS) in a passive virtual navigation task. Contrary to our hypotheses and previous findings, we did not observe significant GLS at a population level, even in younger participants. Further exploratory analyses investigated the impact of task-engagement, as inferred from object-location memory performance, and showed no relationship with GLS magnitude. We also examined potential influences of a confounding one-fold directional signal and various data-processing choices but observed no consistent patterns. Our findings, consistent with recent null results from similar studies, suggest that passive navigation paradigms may be insufficient for reliably eliciting grid-like signals in human fMRI.Imaging neuroscience 4, IMAG.a.1196 (2026). doi:10.1162/IMAG.a.1196info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionMIT Press2026info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessDEhttps://pub.dzne.de/record/285920https://pub.dzne.de/search?p=id:%22DZNE-2026-00366%22Researchersinfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1162/IMAG.a.1196info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2837-6056