Researchers say they've identified a human "neural compass"—a pattern of brain activity that helps prevent humans from becoming lost, UPI reports. 

For the first time, the internal compass humans use to orient themselves and navigate through the environment has been pinpointed in the human brain, researchers reported in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

This discovery could increase understanding of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, in which a person's navigation and orientation are frequently impaired.

Tracking neural activity in humans usually requires participants to remain as still as possible, but for this study researchers employed mobile EEG devices and motion capture to analyze the brain waves of people on the move.

A group of 52 participants moved their heads -- or sometimes just their eyes—to orient themselves based on cues from different computer monitors, while a scalp EEG device monitored their brain activity.

Researchers also performed the study with another 10 participants who'd had electrodes implanted in their brains for monitoring cerebral health problems like epilepsy.

The activity revealed a finely tuned directional signal in the brain that could be detected just before a person actually turned their head towards a new bearing, researchers said.