Spatial navigation training enhances performance on large-scale and small-scale spatial tasks through different...

Elucidating the relationship between large-scale and small-scale spatial abilities is fundamental to advancing our understanding of spatial cognition, with training transfer effects across tasks offering a direct means of exploration. This study investigated how spatial navigation training in a large-scale environment influences both large- and small-scale spatial abilities and their underlying neural mechanisms. Participants completed 20 days of real-world campus navigation training and performed large-scale (distance judgment) and small-scale (paper folding) spatial tasks before and after training. The training group showed significant improvements in both tasks, whereas the control group did not. Brain imaging revealed increased activation in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) during large-scale task performance after training. In contrast, improvements in the small-scale task were associated with reduced deactivation in the right postcentral gyrus (PoCG), right precuneus, and left superior temporal gyrus (STG). Overall, these findings indicate that spatial navigation training enhances large- and small-scale spatial cognition through distinct neural mechanisms, supporting the partial dissociation model and highlighting the contribution of regions showing task-related deactivation.