It's about pattern matching, isn't it?

The researchers examined whether participants focused more on the subway lines or on the individual stations while navigating in the game. The team found that, generally, brain activity and response time increased with the number of line changes standing between participants and their destinations, rather than with the number of stations themselves. The areas in the brain linked to this type of decision making were the dorsal portion of the medial prefrontal cortex, which is known to support higher cognitive functions such as planning, and the premotor cortex, which is more involved in the execution of real or imaginary movements

Sounds like pattern matching to me. :)