Standing in unperturbed balance improves spatial memory and facilitates allocentric representation

Wheelchair users face numerous challenges, which might include experiencing the world from a sitting modality, thus resulting in poorer spatial representation. Our study is an initial exploration of this hypothesis that, to begin with, involved healthy participants using a novel mobility device for sitting and standing locomotion. According to the situations, this device allows for transitioning from the sitting to the standing modality and vice versa. Additionally, we adopted a "classical" methodology to investigate spatial representation. Participants [N = 40] saw a scene of real objects (a book, a teapot, a football, etc.) arranged in a large room. Crucially, a half of them was using the device in the sitting modality, and the other half was in the standing modality. Afterwards, a spatial memory task investigated participants' spatial representation. More importantly, this task assessed whether the spatial representation was more egocentric (viewer-to-objects) or allocentric (objects-to-objects). Results showed that the standing group outperformed the sitting group [p < 0.001] and possessed a markedly allocentric spatial representation [p < 0.001], thus indicating that the standing group was better at grasping the spatial relations among objects. This set of results suggests that the higher viewpoint afforded by the standing modality provided more spatial information to the brain areas involved in spatial processing, thus resulting in a more robust spatial representation. Aside its theoretical relevance, this finding might have practical implications for improving independence and life quality of wheelchair-users.