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 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.

• Publication year

  2013

• Venue

  Journal of Neuroscience

• Publication date

  2013-04-03

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3873-12.2013PMID 23554494PMCID PMC3656495
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• The identified location and direction codes may be important for navigation within extended environments and for understanding large-scale spatial structure.

  Confidence 0.84

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• The right presubiculum coded facing direction across noncontiguous locations.

  Confidence 0.95

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging with multivoxel pattern analysis identified the left presubiculum, retrosplenial complex, and parietal-occipital sulcus as coding location identity across non-overlapping views.

  Confidence 0.96

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review

• facing direction

  spatial code

  The direction an observer is oriented toward at a given location.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• functional magnetic resonance imaging

  measurement technique

  A brain-imaging method used to measure task-related neural activity in the scanned participants.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• large-scale spatial structure

  spatial concept

  The broader organizational layout of an environment beyond a single viewpoint or local scene.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• left presubiculum

  brain region

  A left-hemisphere medial temporal lobe region included among the brain areas examined in the study.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• location identity

  spatial code

  The identity of a place independent of the specific view or sensory input used to observe it.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• multivoxel pattern analysis

  analysis method

  An analysis approach that examines spatial patterns of fMRI signal across multiple voxels.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• navigation

  behavior

  Guided movement through an environment using internal spatial representations.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• parietal-occipital sulcus

  brain region

  A sulcal region in the parietal-occipital cortex that was tested for spatial representations.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• retrosplenial complex

  brain region

  A medial parietal brain region involved in the anatomical set of areas analyzed for spatial coding.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• right presubiculum

  brain region

  A right-hemisphere medial temporal lobe region examined for direction-related representations.

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionAK (4715169a40) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewq (76h6bfydm6) reviewB (s683577b42) review

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