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Related Experiment Videos

Environmental knowledge is subserved by separable dorsal/ventral neural areas

G K Aguirre1, M D'Esposito

  • 1Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4283, USA.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
|April 1, 1997
PubMed
Summary

Environmental psychology suggests distinct spatial knowledge systems. This fMRI study found separate brain regions for landmark appearance and survey position, supporting distributed environmental representation.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Environmental Psychology
  • Neuroimaging

Background:

  • Environmental psychology models differentiate landmark (appearance) and survey (position) spatial knowledge.
  • Topographical disorientation in brain-damaged patients offers tentative support for distinct spatial representations.
  • The neuroanatomical basis for these distinct environmental knowledge components remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether distinct functional, neuroanatomical regions underlie landmark and survey knowledge.
  • To test the hypothesis of separate neural substrates for environmental appearance and positional information.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to study environmental knowledge.
  • Participants made judgments about the appearance (landmark) and position (survey) of familiar locations in a virtual reality environment.

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  • fMRI data analysis rigorously controlled for Type I error, optimizing sensitivity for single-subject results.

    • Main Results:

    • A dorsal/ventral functional dissociation was observed when comparing survey position and landmark appearance conditions in three out of four subjects.
    • This finding suggests distinct neural pathways are involved in processing different types of spatial information.
    • Results align with observations from human lesion studies of topographical disorientation.

    Conclusions:

    • Environmental knowledge is not processed by a single, unified system.
    • Spatial representation is functionally distributed across distinct neocortical regions.
    • The findings support a neuroanatomical basis for the landmark/survey distinction in environmental psychology.