Spatial Navigation Training Enhances Large-Scale and Small-Scale Spatial Abilities through Different Neural Mechanisms

Abstract

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 large-scale spatial navigation training 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 large-scale navigation training enhances spatial ability across scales through distinct neural mechanisms, supporting the partial dissociation model and highlighting the contribution of negatively activated regions to spatial processing.