Exploring the role of space-defining objects in constructing and maintaining imagined scenes

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Spatial Cognition
• Neuroimaging

Background:

• The parahippocampal cortex (PHC) is typically linked to processing full scenes.
• Certain objects, termed space-defining (SD) objects, evoke a strong sense of 3D space, unlike space-ambiguous (SA) objects.
• PHC activation is observed for both scenes and SD objects, suggesting a potential role for SD objects in scene representation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of SD objects versus SA objects in scene construction and maintenance.
• To test the hypothesis that SD objects are more critical for scene representation than SA objects.

Main Methods:

• Utilized scene construction and deconstruction paradigms.
• Participants gradually built and maintained scenes using SD objects, SA objects, and background items.
• Analyzed the order of item addition and removal to infer item significance.

Main Results:

• Participants preferentially selected SD objects over SA and background items as the initial and most critical elements in constructed scenes.
• SD objects were added earlier than SA objects during scene construction.
• Participants retained significantly more SD objects than SA objects when deconstructing scenes, with SD objects often being the last item remaining.

Conclusions:

• SD objects play a privileged and essential role in the construction and maintenance of scene representations.
• SD objects serve as fundamental building blocks for scene perception and memory.