What is Where and How to Get There The Neurocognition of Space Albert Postma

What is Where and How to Get There

The Neurocognition of Space

Albert Postma

Psychological Laboratory, [email protected]

http://www.fss.uu.nl/psn/pionier/

Examples of tasks involving mental spatial processes

- Does the trunk of elephant reach to the ground if the animal is standing in a normal (horizontal) position?

- Imagine the capital letter ‘d’. Turn it 90° to the left. Place the letter ‘j’ below it in the centre. What do you see?

- Lay down your pencil…

- Attend the entrance door of the classroom

DDJ

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Spatial Cognition:= the collection of mental abilities which involve the processing of spatial features of our environment or of complex objects

(ranging from perception, attention, motor action to memory).

Spatial features include distance (depth), relative and absolute position, orientation (direction)

Why Study Spatial Cognition?

- Essential for many daily activities (ecological importance)

- Several recent interesting neurocognitive findings

- Space is the common attribute of all our senses

- Other cognitive acts may essentially be ‘spatially motivated’ (e.g. language evolution)

- High extent of specialization of neural circuits for spatial tasks

How does our brain represent space?

frontaalkwabpariëtaalkwab

temporaalkwab

occipitaalkwab

cerebellum

CGL

V3AV3

V2

V1VP

V4v

V8

V7MT/V5

inferotemporaalcortex (IT)

V7V3AV3V1V2VPV4vV8

OptischezenuwChiasmaRadiatioV1

How is spatial information further processed after the primary visual cortex?

Dorsal and ventral stream

Dorsal and ventral stream• The anatomical separation of visual cortical

processing within a dorsal and ventral stream is

well established.

• What about the functions that are subserved by

these two visual streams?

Ungeleider & Mishkin (1982)

Based their distinction on stimulus attributes

Ventral stream: What is the stimulus

Dorsal stream: Where is the stimulus



Experimental evidence that supports this functional

distinction:

Lesion studies with monkeys

Two tasks: Object discrimination and spatial

discrimination.


Ungeleider & Mishkin

(1982)


Object discrimination

• Delayed non-matching to

sample

• Monkeys with a bilateral

lesion of the inferotemporal

lobe are impaired on this

task.




Spatial discrimination

• Landmark discrimination

• Choose the foodwell closer

to the ‘landmark’.

• Monkeys with bilateral posterior

parietal lesions are impaired on

this task.


The conclusion that the landmark task showed that

monkeys with parietal lesions were impaired in

spatial discrimination was criticized by Milner &

Goodale (1995) for several reasons.

Instead they proposed a different division of labour

based on what the visual information is used for,

rather than the stimulus characteristics.

Ventral: Visual perception

Dorsal: Visual guidance of goal-directed action


Patient studies:

• Optic ataxia:

– Disorder of spatial

perception or visually guided

action?

– Jakobson et al. (1991),

Jeannerod et al. (1994)

report a patient who was

impaired in adjusting their

grip aperture to the size of

the object.


Patient studies:

• Patient DF:

– Visual form agnosia

– Impaired recognition of

• form

• orientation, location

– However, she can use visual information to guide her actions

D.F. Controles

D.F. Controles


Patient studies:

• Patient DF:

Visual input

Visual perception

Visuomotor behaviour

Ilussion distortion larger in judgment than in pointing

However, with delayed pointing the illusion impact increases

Involvement of the ventral stream in visuomotor behaviour

Milner & Goodale (1995)

• Perceptual identification requires different visual

information than goal directed action

REFERENCE Allocentric Egocentric

Hoe werkt dit voor de haptische waarneming?

Zuidhoek, S., Kappers, A.M.L., van der Lubbe, R.H.J. and Postma, A. (submitted to Experimental Brain Research). Delay improves performance on a haptic spatial matching task.

Exploring the reference bar

Delay: waiting 10 s for the response signal

Response: setting the test bar parallel

Result: deviation in delay trials is smaller than in immediate trials

immediate

10 second delay

Na een pauze wordt de staaf minder aan de orientatie van de hand gecodeerd maar meer in ‘cognitieve’ termen (visualisatie strategie) =>

Kunnen blinden dit ook?

reftest

Remembering what was where:

How is spatial information stored in memory?

The hippocampal formation seems crucial (extending the ventral stream), receiving both egocentric and allocentric projections

Males

Females

Spatial performance in voles

The position of the hippocampus in the brain

Connections to and from the hippocampus

Hippocampus brings multimodal, highly processed information together and consolidates it into memory

Place and direction cells are found in the hippocampal formation, which code location, direction, and speed and distance (theta rhythm).

These functional properties form the basis for cognitive maps which support

a) wayfinding

b) goal identification and calculation of trajectories

c) predicting interactions between agents and objects

d) other cognitive abilities (temporal, linguistic etc..)

What about lateralisation?

=> Smith & Milner (1981, 1985, 1995)

In humans the hippocampus also supports spatial memory (Kessels, De Haan, Kappelle & Postma, Brain Reseerch Reviews, 2001)

Most studies suggest right sided lateralisation for spatial memory. However, this depends on the specific conditions

Apparently, there exists specific neural circuitries dedicated to spatial memory

- dorsal & ventral stream provide egocentric and allocentric reference, resp.

- left & right hemisphere provide categorical and coordinate spatial metrics, resp.

- hippocampus supports cognitive map for (allocentric) spatial memory

=> at a functional level, it might be hypothesized that spatial memory is relatively autonomous, working in an automatic fashion

Hasher & Zacks (1979)

Automatic Processes: -nonintentional -unaware -no load on central resources or attention -difficult to suppress

Effortfull Processes: -intentional, voluntary -conscious -capacity limited -flexible

Features coded automatically in memory:frequency and order of occurrence, location

Criteria for Automaticity

No effects of:

a) Intent to Learn

b) Age

c) Practice and Feedback

d) Individual Differences/ Intelligence

e) Concurrent Processing Loads

Table 1. Studies in support of the claim that spatial memory is automatic.

Authors Task Manipulations

Andrade &Meudell, 1993

words presented in one of 4 cor-ners.

Dual task interference

Dulaney &Ellis, 1991

4 pictures in a 2x2 matrix.Pictures on a page in 4quadrants.

Delay; Intelligence;Depth of encoding

Ellis et al,1987

idem age (3 - 6 yrs); intent;intelligence; depth ofencoding

Ellis et al,1989

idem age (children-adults);intelligence

Ellis andRickard, 1989

idem Intent; Delay

Ellis, 1990 idem Intent; Delay; Dual task

Katz & Ellis,1991

idem Delay; Depth ofencoding; Intelligence

McCormack,1982

A series of 4 words, verticallyaranged were presented

Intent; Age (20-70 yrs)

Shaidon &Ellis, 1993

4 pictures shown in a 2x2, 3x3,or 4x4 matrix

Intent

Schulman1973

4 words in a compass arrange-ment were presented

Intent

Zechmeister etal. 1975

recall of place on the page ofinformation in a MC test (whichone of the 4 quadrants).

Intent

Table 2. Studies which defy the claim that spatial memory is automatic.

Authors Task Manipulations

Acredeloet al 1975

Locate place where giveneventhappened.

Intent; Age (3-8 yrs)

Cherry &Park, 1993

24 objects placed in 3Denvironment (1x2m) or a2D map.

Age (20-67 yrs)

Finkel,1973

Displays of 2-5 positions,occupied by completelyequal or by completelydifferent objects

Age (children)

Kail &Siegel,1977

4x4 matrix containing 5or 7 letters.

Age (8-20 yrs)

Light &Zelinski,1983

Study a map with 12structures. Chose from anextended set of 18structures and positionsthe correct 12.

Age (25 vs 65 yrs); Intent

Naveh-Benjamin,1987

6x6 matrix, 20 items. Age (25-65 yrs); Intent; Dual task; Practice;Strategy (a certain spatial learning strategyis advised); Intelligence

Naveh-Benjamin,1988

6x6 matrix, 20 items.Recognition test

Age (25-70 yrs); Intent; Practice; Dual task;Intelligence

Park et al.,1982

drawings on the left orright side of a sheet

Age (25-65 yrs); Intent

Park et al.,1983

words or pictures in 4quadrants of a page

Age (20-75 yrs); Intent

Pezdek, 16 words or objects in a Age (17-68 yrs)

Conclusions on automaticity of spatial memory appear to depend upon the type of task used.

Both implicit (automatic) and explicit (effortfull) influences may drive spatial memory performance

Future research: to what extent do different neurological groups suffer specific implicit or explicit spatial memory impairments?

What can an Ordinary CKI Student Do in Space?

Implicit and Explicit Spatial Memory in Korsakoff Patients

Knowing where things are in our environment is so critically important that we may retain and use this information (implicit memory) without conciously remembering it (explicit memory)

Korsakoff patients suffer huge problems in spatial memory (e.g. binding of attributes and context memory seems particularly affected)

Question: does their implicit spatial memory survive?

Program created by Rob Broekmans (CKI student)

Test phase: choose one alternative from three locations

include

exclude

Inclusion condition:

probability target response = C + (1-C)U

C = explicit component; U = implicit component

Exclusion condition:

probability target response = (1 - C)U

Atractive features:

- ecological valid task

- connects to the everyday life problems of these patients

- sheds light on the interaction between implicit and explicit memory and their neural bases

Problem:

- working with clinical groups: do Korsakoffs understand the instructions?

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

implicit explicit

younger

older

Caldwell & Masson, 2001

Can a CKI student do some really pioneering work in Space?

Yes!!

Burgess, 2002

Arguably, spatial cognition is one of an organism’s most important abilities

Surprisingly, our knowledge of the neurocognition of space is relatively sparse

Future decades might show an increase in neurocognitive research in this domain

http://www.fss.uu.nl/psn/pionier/

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What is Where and How to Get There The Neurocognition of Space Albert Postma