Males and females use different distal cues in a virtual environment navigation task

Sandstrom, Noah J.; Kaufman, Jordy; Huettel, Scott A.

doi:10.1016/s0926-6410(98)00002-0

Cited by 439 publications

(333 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…However, meta-analyses showed that these differences are highly overrated 33 . According to other studies, male and female participants use different strategies while navigating 34,35 . A more recent fMRI study examining sex differences during navigation shows a differential neural network for men and women during maze exploration 11 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective neural representation of objects relevant for navigation

Janzen

Turennout²

2004

Nat Neurosci

327

282

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As people find their way through their environment, objects at navigationally relevant locations can serve as crucial landmarks. The parahippocampal gyrus has previously been shown to be involved in object and scene recognition. In the present study, we investigated the neural representation of navigationally relevant locations. Healthy human adults viewed a route through a virtual museum with objects placed at intersections (decision points) or at simple turns (non-decision points). Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired during subsequent recognition of the objects in isolation. Neural activity in the parahippocampal gyrus reflected the navigational relevance of an object's location in the museum. Parahippocampal responses were selectively increased for objects that occurred at decision points, independent of attentional demands. This increase occurred for forgotten as well as remembered objects, showing implicit retrieval of navigational information. The automatic storage of relevant object location in the parahippocampal gyrus provides a part of the neural mechanism underlying successful navigation.Studies on the neural basis of navigation have consistently shown the hippocampus to be crucially involved in the creation of an allocentric spatial representation of our environment 1-12 . The parahippocampal gyrus, a brain region highly interconnected with the hippocampus, has been implicated in the encoding of objects-in-place during navigation 5,6,13 , as well as in the processing of spatial visual scenes 14,15 . Successful navigation is facilitated by the presence of objects, or landmarks, at different locations along a route [16][17][18] . Not all objects along a route, however, are equally relevant for navigation. Whereas objects at intersections convey information about which of the possible paths is the correct one, objects placed at simple turns in the road are of much less significance. Behavioral studies have reported that objects placed at decision points (that is, intersections) are more likely to be remembered later than objects placed at non-decision points 17 . They are also regarded as more important when participants evaluate the quality of a route description 19 . How this distinction between navigationally relevant and irrelevant objects is stored and maintained in the brain is still unknown. To date, all studies have focused on the neural correlates of encoding spatial information during navigation. To find one's way back in a surrounding, however, the information about relevant locations needs to be available at a later moment in time. Therefore, it is likely that spatial information that is crucial for pathfinding is encoded and stored differently than information that is of less importance. Here we report event-related fMRI evidence for differential representation of objects in the parahippocampal gyrus as a function of their navigational relevance in a large-scale environment.In the study phase of the experiment, twenty healthy, right-handed human adu...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective neural representation of objects relevant for navigation

Janzen

Turennout²

2004

Nat Neurosci

327

282

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The exceptions to this female advantage in conditions subject and subject&cue-card perhaps indicates an advantage for men in using internal updating that is masked by the advantage for women when visual snapshots can be used. Thus it may be that the noted female preference for recognising landmarks and male preference for using distances, directions and environmental geometry to navigate (Choi & Silverman, 1997;Galea & Kimura, 1992;Miller & Santoni, 1982;Sandstrom, Kaufman, & Huettel, 1998) relates to lower level differences in the ability to use visual snapshot and updatable egocentric representations.…”

Section: The Effect Of Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

Orientational manoeuvres in the dark: dissociating allocentric and egocentric influences on spatial memory

2004

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Subjects in a darkroom saw an array of five phosphorescent objects on a circular table and, after a short delay, indicated which object had been moved. During the delay the subject, the table or a phosphorescent landmark external to the array was moved (a rotation about the centre of the table) either alone or together. The subject then had to indicate which one of the five objects had been moved. A fully factorial design was used to detect the use of three types of representations of object location: (i) visual snapshots; (ii) egocentric representations updated by self-motion; and (iii) representations relative to the external cue. Improved performance was seen whenever the test array was oriented consistently with any of these stored representations. The influence of representations (i) and (ii) replicates previous work. The influence of representation (iii) is a novel finding which implies that allocentric representations play a role in spatial memory, even over short distances and times. The effect of the external cue was greater when initially experienced as stable. Females out-performed males except when the array was consistent with self-motion but not visual snapshots. These results enable a simple egocentric model of spatial memory to be extended to address largescale navigation, including the effects of allocentric knowledge, landmark stability and gender. q

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“…Besides, people may or may not choose to use landmarks, and these landmarks will vary depending upon the environment that is being navigated. Different people may also use different landmarks in the same environment 7) . Sorrows and Hirtlee 8) delved into the importance of landmarks in wayfinding behavior.…”

Section: Introduction (1) Wayfinding Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study on Spatial Legibility of Street Network Around Railway Station

et al. 2017

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This study was conducted to verify the effects of some geometric factors, such as the angular direction change, the available visual information amount, the width variation of streets, and the axis deviation on street space on the continuity of the street network, to have a good legibility along the street. The main purpose of this research is to provide a classification of route types considering the legibility of street space. The experiment was conducted around the Minami Urawa Station in Saitama Prefecture. The street network in the study area was analyzed using two types of parameters, such as visibility parameters and spatial parameters. The visibility parameters were obtained through statistical calculations using visibility attributes defined through a field survey, while spatial parameters were hypothetically defined using the knowledge about the street network of the study area and referring to the literature. Both parameters were analyzed using PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and Cluster analysis to define route types.The results of the research clearly illustrated that there was a significant relationship between the visual characteristics of the street network and the street space legibility. Seven types of routes were classified and their attributes were clarified. These attributes affected the wayfinding behavior of the pedestrians in the study area.

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Males and females use different distal cues in a virtual environment navigation task

Cited by 439 publications

References 35 publications

Selective neural representation of objects relevant for navigation

Selective neural representation of objects relevant for navigation

Orientational manoeuvres in the dark: dissociating allocentric and egocentric influences on spatial memory

A Study on Spatial Legibility of Street Network Around Railway Station

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