Mazes have and continue to serve an important role in the neuroscientific studies of spatial learning and memory. They are also used as models for studying neurological and psychiatric disorders that affect spatial learning and memory, such as Alzheimer's disease.

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Despite several emojis representing scientific and medical concepts, there is currently no emoji to represent the maze, a concept that has been a fundamental part of our society for millennia and is a critical part of neuroscience research. Defined as a puzzle composed of a network of paths in modern neuroscience, the maze has served an important role in the neuroscientific studies of spatial learning and memory.

The maze was first used in the 1890s by Edmund Sanford and his students at Clark University to study what we now know as comparative psychology. Since then, a number of classic mazes have been invented to study a wide range of behaviors in different animal models and the underlying neurology, such as the Radial Arm Maze by Olton and Samuelson in 1976 for spatial memory and the Morris Water Maze by R. Morris for working memory examination, which led to the validation of animal models for diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.^5"