"Taller and Shorter": Human 3-D Spatial Memory Distorts Familiar Multilevel Buildings.

ABSTRACT: Animal experiments report contradictory findings on the presence of a behavioural and neuronal anisotropy exhibited in vertical and horizontal capabilities of spatial orientation and navigation. We performed a pointing experiment in humans on the imagined 3-D direction of the location of various invisible goals that were distributed horizontally and vertically in a familiar multilevel hospital building. The 21 participants were employees who had worked for years in this building. The hypothesis was that comparison of the experimentally determined directions and the true directions would reveal systematic inaccuracy or dimensional anisotropy of the localizations. The study provides first evidence that the internal representation of a familiar multilevel building was distorted compared to th

SUBMITTER: Brandt T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4624999 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature