Hugo J. Spiers

This study investigates spatial navigation impairment in post-acute NMDAR and LGI1 encephalitis, finding it common and partially dissociable from episodic memory dysfunction.

The paper shows that the brain encodes network structure using distinct brain regions, with hippocampus representing shortest-path distances and retrosplenial complex representing global connectivity.

The paper examines brain-to-brain synchrony during group hunting using fNIRS hyperscanning and finds greater synchrony in prefrontal cortex regions during successful hunting.

The paper investigates brain activity during architectural experience, showing how prefrontal and hippocampal regions respond to spatial complexity and aesthetic qualities using fMRI and first-person videos.

This study tracks cognitive and motor decline in spatial navigation across the adult lifespan using data from a video game, showing age-related declines in both domains without a shift to alternative strategies.

This study finds that virtual navigation performance predicts real-world navigation in older adults for medium difficulty tasks but not easy or difficult ones.

This study examines how expert London taxi drivers plan routes by precaching decisions at key junctions, using complexity metrics to prioritize mental sampling during route planning.

This study shows that London taxi drivers use hierarchical planning by organizing city regions into clusters, leading to faster route recall compared to distance-based planning.

This study shows that London taxi drivers improve their navigation skills over decades by using regional boundaries to optimize route choices.

The paper examines the relationship between object-based spatial abilities and virtual navigation performance using a mobile game, finding limited correlations between navigation tasks and visuospatial tests.

This study finds that video gaming is linked to better spatial navigation performance, while GPS reliance is not, and gender differences in navigation are reduced after accounting for gaming experience.

The paper examines how starting to drive solo before age 18 affects wayfinding ability using a mobile game task and self-reported driving data.

The paper finds that longer self-reported sleep duration in men is linked to better virtual spatial navigation performance, while no such association is found in women.

The paper shows that goal-directed behavior compresses neural representations of space in the hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex, with compressed representations predicting successful learning.

The paper examines overconfidence and the Dunning-Kruger effect in spatial navigation across 46 countries using data from 376,836 participants.

The paper examines cultural influences on self-estimated navigation ability versus actual performance across 46 countries using a large sample.

The paper links street network entropy in childhood environments to spatial navigation ability in adulthood using a global video game-based cognitive task.

The paper compares spatial memory distortions in physical, desktop VR, and HMD VR environments, finding similar model fits across all three despite differences in body-based cues.

The paper investigates how sleep affects memory for graph networks, finding that sleep enhances retention of links between highly connected nodes.

This paper examines how London taxi drivers acquire their cognitive map of London through systematic study and route-based learning, providing insights for AI spatial learning.

The paper tests if virtual navigation on a mobile app predicts real-world wayfinding performance and finds a significant correlation and male advantage in both tasks.

The paper shows that long-term consolidation shifts goal proximity coding from the hippocampus to the retrosplenial cortex during navigation of familiar versus newly learned environments.

The paper uses fMRI to study human navigation behavior in dynamic environments, finding specific brain activity patterns associated with back-tracking, detours, and shortcuts.

The paper investigates how global economic and cultural factors influence spatial navigation ability across 2.5 million people, finding five clustered groups linked to wealth and gender inequality.

This study examines how human theta and alpha oscillations change during navigation, revealing patterns linked to detours and shortcuts.

The paper examines how sex and APOE status affect spatial navigation in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease using game-based cognitive assessments and lab experiments.