Abstract representations of location and facing direction in the human brain

Humans, like other mobile organisms, rely on spatial representations to guide navigation from place to place. Although previous work has identified neural systems involved in wayfinding, the specific spatial codes supported by these systems are not well understood. We use functional magnetic resonan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of neuroscience Vol. 33; no. 14; pp. 6133 - 6142
Main Authors Vass, Lindsay K, Epstein, Russell A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Society for Neuroscience 03.04.2013
Subjects
Analysis of Variance
Brain - blood supply
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Orientation - physiology
Oxygen
Photic Stimulation
Reaction Time
Space Perception - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:Humans, like other mobile organisms, rely on spatial representations to guide navigation from place to place. Although previous work has identified neural systems involved in wayfinding, the specific spatial codes supported by these systems are not well understood. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify regions within the human medial temporal and medial parietal lobes that encode two fundamental spatial quantities-location and facing direction-in a manner that abstracts away from sensory inputs. University students were scanned while viewing photographs taken at several familiar campus locations. Multivoxel pattern analyses indicated that the left presubiculum, retrosplenial complex, and parietal-occipital sulcus coded location identity even across non-overlapping views, whereas the right presubiculum coded facing direction even across noncontiguous locations. The location and direction codes supported by these regions may be critical to our ability to navigate within the extended environment and to understand its large-scale spatial structure.
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Author contributions: L.K.V. and R.A.E. designed research; L.K.V. and R.A.E. performed research; L.K.V. and R.A.E. analyzed data; L.K.V. and R.A.E. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0270-6474
1529-2401
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3873-12.2013