Highly recommended reading if you are interested in theories of how grid-like patterns might emerge. Includes ideas about grid cell modules, which I’ll be talking about in an upcoming HTM School (next Friday).
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1635/20120511
If that one is too much detail, here is a great summary of all the different types of cells in the brain that deal with location: The representation of space in the brain.
Coincidentally I was watching this excellent video today:
Circuitry and Mathematical Codes for Navigation in the Brain
https://youtu.be/-_vc-lg40aw
That’s indeed an excellent video and in Fiete lab there is code for simulations in matlab/octave that show how these grid pattern emerge
[http://clm.utexas.edu/fietelab/code.htm]
Slightly related…anyone else been to Boston (USA) and also played Fallout 4? I found it interesting that my brain could quite readily utilise an existing grid to navigate a new area with similar landmark placement but at a different scale.