The impact of cartographic cues on neural representations of space

地图线索对空间神经表征的影响

• 批准号: 512858302
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Nikolai Axmacher
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Neuropsychologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/512858302?language=en
• 关键词: impact; cartographic; cues; neural; representations; impact; cartographic; cues; neural; representations

Using an innovative interdisciplinary research approach that integrates cartography and cognitive neuroscience, we strive to obtain new and fundamental insights into how humans process information from maps and how the efficiency of maps and map-based interfaces to improve spatial navigation can be optimized. Maps provide information about orientation, i.e. object positions (landmarks), distances, and angles between landmarks. To date, we still lack a systematic understanding on a cognitive and neuroscientific level of how such cartographic components contribute to generating spatial skills. The aim of the interdisciplinary project is to clarify how brain cells and networks that constitute a “spatial map” in the human medial temporal lobe are stabilized by cartographic cues of real maps. Neuroscientific evidence about navigationally relevant cell types may provide a novel conceptual and empirical framework for a fundamental understanding of map-based information processing. We hypothesize that revealing the mechanisms of how spatially responsive cells in the human brain (and in particular, grid cells) react to cartographic cues will enable systematic improvements of map designs. Cartographic cues are thus key to both understanding and influencing grid cell activities, which may in turn improve navigation performance when using maps. Highlighting specific map elements and inserting additional graphic structures in a way that matches the properties of grid cells may align grid cell firing in a controlled manner. In the project, we will conduct a series of behavioral and fMRI experiments in order to systematically examine the effects of various different cartographic cues on the firing patterns of grid cells and navigational performance. We hypothesize that different geometrical symmetries may serve distinct functions for spatial information processing: While orthogonal lines and borders may provide directional information, the repetitive triangular tiling provided by grid cell axes enables extracting distance information. This project thus aims for the first transfer of neuroscientific findings about grid cells to a direct practical application.

使用创新的跨学科研究方法，该方法整合了制图和认知神经科学，我们努力获得有关人类如何从地图处理信息以及如何优化地图和基于地图的界面来改善空间导航的新的和基本的见解。地图提供了有关定向的信息，即物体位置（地标），地标之间的距离和角度。迄今为止，我们仍然缺乏对这种制图组件如何促进生成空间技能的认知和神经科学水平的系统理解。跨学科项目的目的是阐明人类媒体临时叶片中构成“空间图”的脑细胞和网络如何通过真实地图的制图提示来稳定。有关导航相关细胞类型的神经科学证据可能会为基于地图的信息处理的基本理解提供一种新颖的概念和经验框架。我们假设揭示了人脑（尤其是网格细胞）如何对制图提示的空间响应细胞的机制将有助于系统地改进地图设计。因此，制图提示是理解和影响网格单元活动的关键，这反过来又可以改善使用地图时的导航性能。突出特定的地图元素并以与网格单元格性质相匹配的方式插入其他图形结构，可能会以受控的方式对齐网格单元。在项目中，我们将进行一系列行为和fMRI实验，以系统地检查各种不同制图提示对网格细胞发射模式和导航性能的影响。我们假设不同的几何对称性可以在空间信息处理中起不同的功能：而正交线和边界可以提供方向信息，而网格单元轴提供的重复三角瓷砖可以提取距离信息。因此，该项目旨在将有关网格细胞的神经科学发现结果首次转移到直接的实际应用中。