Spatial Cognition and Navigation

Effects of Aging on the Encoding of Spatial Direction in the Human Brain

This study investigates age-related changes in neural tuning for spatial direction using fMRI, finding broader tuning in older adults in the primary visual cortex but no behavioral impact.

Studying Spatial Memory in Augmented and Virtual reality

This study compares spatial memory tasks in virtual reality and augmented reality, finding that AR provides better performance and user experience.

No single, stable 3D representation can explain pointing biases in a spatial updating task

The paper shows that pointing errors in a spatial updating task cannot be explained by a stable 3D representation of the scene.

Learning of Spatial Properties of a Large-scale Virtual City with an Interactive Map

This study investigates how spatial knowledge is acquired through map learning in a virtual city, finding that single sessions improve knowledge of house orientations but repeated sessions are needed for relative positioning tasks.

Virtual navigation tested on a mobile app is predictive of real-world wayfinding navigation performance

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.

Effects of Orientation Change during Environmental Learning on Age-Related Difference in Spatial Memory

This study investigates age-related differences in spatial memory by comparing memory accuracy in older and younger adults when learning environments from aerial movies with varying orientations.

Who gets lost and why: A representative cross-sectional survey on sociodemographic and vestibular determinants of wayfinding strategies

The paper investigates sociodemographic and vestibular factors influencing wayfinding strategies in a representative German-speaking adult population, finding that age, education, and vestibular function significantly affect strategy use.

Everyday taxi drivers: Do better navigators have larger hippocampi?

The paper tests if hippocampal size correlates with navigation ability in healthy young adults but finds no such correlation.

Eye-movements as a signature of age-related differences in global planning strategies for spatial navigation

This study investigates age-related differences in re-planning strategies for spatial navigation by analyzing eye movements during a virtual maze task and using reinforcement learning.

A novel virtual plus-maze for studying electrophysiological correlates of spatial reorientation

This study uses EEG to examine how humans reorient in a virtual plus-maze, finding rapid neural responses to teleportation events.

The Human Hippocampus Contributes to Egocentric Coding of Distance to a Local Landmark

This study shows that hippocampal volume predicts egocentric distance coding to a local landmark during navigation, with stronger effects when path integration relies on body-based cues.

Human back-tracking behaviour is associated with suppression of default-mode region activity and enhanced dorsal anterior cingulate activity

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

Global determinants of navigation ability

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.

Looking at the map -- or navigating in a virtual city. Interaction of visuospatial display and spatial strategies in VR

The paper presents preliminary results from a study on how participants use a static city map during navigation in a virtual 3D environment, analyzing spatial behavior and eye tracking data.

A Dynamic Bayesian Observer Model Reveals Origins of Bias in Visual Path Integration

This study uses a dynamic Bayesian observer model to show that biases in visual path integration arise from a slow-speed prior rather than imperfect integration.

Spotting the path that leads nowhere: Modulation of human theta and alpha oscillations induced by trajectory changes during navigation

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

Behavioral and neural representations of spatial directions across words, schemas, and images

The paper investigates how the brain processes spatial directions presented as images, schemas, and words, finding that neural representations in the intraparietal sulcus are strongest for visual scenes and that abstract formats are faster to interpret.

Hippocampus, retrosplenial and parahippocampal cortices encode multi-compartment 3D space in a hierarchical manner

The paper investigates how the human brain encodes 3D multi-compartment space, finding hierarchical neural representations and isotropic encoding of vertical and horizontal information.

Electrocortical Evidence for Long-Term Incidental Spatial Learning Through Modified Navigation Instructions

This study shows that highlighting landmarks in navigation instructions enhances long-term spatial memory and EEG correlates of recollection.

The Invisible Maze Task (IMT): Interactive Exploration of Sparse Virtual Environments to Investigate Action-Driven Formation of Spatial Representations

The paper investigates spatial learning through interactive virtual environments, finding that exploration behavior changes correlate with improved sketch map quality.

Intrinsic Hippocampal-Caudate Interaction Correlates with Human Navigation

This study examines the functional interaction between hippocampus and caudate in human navigation using fMRI and behavioral tasks, finding a positive correlation with navigation ability.

Are allocentric spatial reference frames compatible with theories of Enactivism?

The paper investigates whether allocentric spatial reference frames can be explained by an action-oriented approach, finding that spatial information about houses is primarily coded in action-oriented relations while streets use absolute orientations.