17 Kransberg, Jonas Sjøli Bråthen, Anne Cecilie Falch, Emilie Sogn Øverbye, Knut E. Ø. Garrido, Pablo F. Fjell, Anders M. Stangl, Matthias Wolbers, Thomas Sneve, Markus H. Walhovd, Kristine B. AG Wolbers Imaging neuroscience Imaging neuroscience MIT Press Cambridge, MA 2837-6056 10.1162/IMAG.a.1196 IMAG.a.1196 4 Grid 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. PUB:(DE-HGF)16, ; 0, ; Journal Article 2026 DZNE-2026-00366 2026 https://pub.dzne.de/record/285920 https://doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.1196