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Updated: Jun 21, 2025
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Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions
Published on: May 2, 2019
6.1K
A scene with an invisible wall - navigational experience shapes visual scene representation
Shi Pui Donald Li1, Jiayu Shao2, Zhengang Lu3
1Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|July 15, 2024
Summary
Navigational experience shapes how we see scenes. Even with identical visuals, people perceive differences based on whether they could freely navigate or were blocked, influencing brain activity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Human Navigation
Background:
- Human navigation relies heavily on visual input.
- Previous research focused on visual features for navigation, but the impact of navigational experience on visual scene representation is less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how navigational experience influences behavioral and neural responses to visual scenes.
- To determine if the brain represents navigational affordances beyond visual properties.
Main Methods:
- Participants navigated virtual reality (VR) environments with manipulated navigational experience (free vs. blocked).
- Behavioral perceptual identification tasks and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used to assess responses to scene images.
Main Results:
- Behaviorally, participants perceived greater visual differences between scenes if their prior navigational experience differed, even when visual properties were similar.
- Neural patterns in the parahippocampal place area (PPA) distinguished scenes based solely on prior navigational experience.
Conclusions:
- The human visual cortex represents navigability information acquired through experience, independent of visual scene properties.
- Scene representation is modulated by prior navigational experience, contributing to a functionally meaningful visual environment.
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