Brandt Thomas, Huber Markus, Schramm Hannah, Kugler Günter, Dieterich Marianne, Glasauer Stefan
Clinical Neuroscience, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany; German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders-IFBLMU (DSGZ), Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience; Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany; Hertie Foundation, Frankfurt a.M., Germany.
Clinical Neuroscience, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany; Center for Sensorimotor Research; Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany.
PLoS One. 2015 Oct 28;10(10):e0141257. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141257. eCollection 2015.
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 the dimensions of the true building: vertically 215% taller and horizontally 51% shorter. This was not only demonstrated in the mathematical reconstruction of the mental model based on the analysis of the pointing experiments but also by the participants' drawings of the front view and the ground plan of the building. Thus, in the mental model both planes were altered in different directions: compressed for the horizontal floor plane and stretched for the vertical column plane. This could be related to human anisotropic behavioural performance of horizontal and vertical navigation in such buildings.
动物实验报告了关于空间定向和导航的垂直与水平能力中行为和神经元各向异性存在情况的相互矛盾的研究结果。我们在人类身上进行了一项指向实验,实验对象是想象位于一座熟悉的多层医院建筑中水平和垂直分布的各种不可见目标位置的三维方向。21名参与者是在这座建筑中工作多年的员工。假设是,将实验确定的方向与真实方向进行比较会揭示定位的系统误差或维度各向异性。该研究首次提供证据表明,与真实建筑的尺寸相比,熟悉的多层建筑的内部表征发生了扭曲:垂直方向高215%,水平方向短51%。这不仅在基于指向实验分析的心理模型数学重建中得到了证明,而且在参与者绘制的建筑正视图和平面图中也得到了体现。因此,在心理模型中,两个平面在不同方向上都发生了改变:水平楼层平面被压缩,垂直柱面被拉伸。这可能与人类在这类建筑中水平和垂直导航的各向异性行为表现有关。