A Scene with an Invisible Wall-Navigational Experience Shapes Visual Scene Representation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Human Navigation
• Visual Perception

Background:

• Human navigation relies on visual cues.
• Previous research focused on visual features for navigation.
• 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 prior navigation experience alters visual scene perception.
• To explore the neural basis of experience-dependent scene representation.

Main Methods:

• Participants navigated virtual reality environments with manipulated navigability (navigable vs. nonnavigable).
• Visual scene properties were kept constant across conditions.
• Behavioral (perceptual identification) and neural (fMRI) data were collected during scene viewing.

Main Results:

• Scenes were judged as more visually different if prior navigational experience varied.
• The parahippocampal place area distinguished scenes based solely on prior navigational experience.
• Neural representations reflected navigational history independent of visual similarity.

Conclusions:

• The human visual scene cortex represents navigability information acquired through experience.
• Scene representation is modulated by prior navigational experience.
• This modulation contributes to constructing functionally meaningful visual environments.