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Related Experiment Video

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Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine

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Published on: October 27, 2016

Representation of space: image-like or sensorimotor?

Christoph Zetzsche¹, Johannes Wolter, Christopher Galbraith

¹Cognitive Neuroinformatics, University of Bremen, FB3, University of Bremen, P.O. Box 330 440, 28334 Bremen, Germany. zetzsche@informatik.uni-bremen.de

|October 10, 2009

Summary

The brain

Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Neuroscience
Spatial Navigation

Background:

The human mind's ability to navigate relies on a 'cognitive map'.
The precise nature of this cognitive map, whether image-like or otherwise, remains debated.
Understanding spatial representation is key to cognitive neuroscience.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if the cognitive map is image-like and adheres to Euclidean geometry.
To test the impact of 'impossible' virtual environments on spatial representation and navigation.
To explore alternative models of spatial representation beyond image-like maps.

Main Methods:

Development of a novel experimental technique using 'impossible' virtual environments (VEs).
Subjects navigated both 'normal' and geometrically/topologically violated VEs.

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Assessment of navigation performance and awareness of environmental manipulations via forced-choice tests.

Main Results:

No substantial influence of impossible VEs on navigation performance was observed.
Subjects showed little awareness of the manipulated environmental properties.
Navigation did not appear significantly hindered by violations of Euclidean metrics or planar topology.

Conclusions:

The cognitive map may not be a strictly image-like, 2D representation.
Sensorimotor or graph-like representations are plausible alternatives for spatial cognition.
The brain's spatial representation is more flexible than a simple geometric map.