Cognitive maps for hierarchical spaces in the human brain.

ABSTRACT: Many of the environments that we navigate through every day are hierarchically organized-they consist of spaces nested within other spaces. How do our mind/brains represent such environments? To address this question, we familiarized participants with a virtual environment consisting of a building within a courtyard, with objects distributed throughout the courtyard and building interior. We then scanned them with fMRI while they performed a memory task that required them to think about spatial relationships within and across the subspaces. Behavioral responses were less accurate and response times were longer on trials requiring integration across the subspaces compared to trials not requiring integration. fMRI response differences between integration and non-integration trials were obser

SUBMITTER: Peer M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11838598 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature