Spriggs Meg J, Kirk Ian J, Skelton Ronald W
School of Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Brain Research New Zealand, New Zealand.
School of Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Brain Research New Zealand, New Zealand.
Behav Brain Res. 2018 Feb 26;339:195-206. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.11.041. Epub 2017 Dec 2.
Spatial navigation is a complex and multi-faceted skill that, in humans, is understood to encompass two distinct navigational strategies, namely allocentric and egocentric navigation. These differ in the frame of reference used and the brain networks activated. However, egocentric navigation can be further divided into two, equally distinct strategies depending on whether the navigator is using subject-to-object relations (egocentric-cue) or direction of body turns (egocentric-response) to navigate. To date, there are no experimental paradigms able to distinguish between participants' employment of allocentric, egocentric-cue and egocentric-response strategies, and to track their usage over time. The current study presents the Hex Maze: a novel virtual environment that can not only distinguish between the three navigational strategies, but can also be used to index aspects of strategy use such as preference, acquisition, stability and competence. To illustrate this, 32 male and 32 female participants were presented with the Hex Maze and sex differences in strategy usage were explored. While the results offer some support for previously identified sex differences in strategy preference, there were no significant sex differences in the novel measures of strategy acquisition, stability, or multi-strategy competence. Additionally, our results suggest that strategy preference does not preclude learning to competently navigate using other strategies. Importantly, the current study offers validation for the Hex Maze as an unbiased method of exploring spatial navigation, and it is anticipated that this easy-to-use tool will be valuable across research and clinical settings.
空间导航是一项复杂且多方面的技能，在人类中，它被理解为包含两种不同的导航策略，即空间参照导航和自我中心导航。这两种策略在使用的参照系和激活的脑网络方面有所不同。然而，自我中心导航可以进一步分为两种同样不同的策略，这取决于导航者是使用主体与客体的关系（自我中心线索）还是身体转动的方向（自我中心反应）来导航。迄今为止，尚无实验范式能够区分参与者对空间参照导航、自我中心线索导航和自我中心反应导航策略的运用，并追踪其随时间的使用情况。当前的研究提出了六边形迷宫：一种新颖的虚拟环境，它不仅能够区分这三种导航策略，还可用于衡量策略使用的各个方面，如偏好、习得、稳定性和能力。为了说明这一点，32名男性和32名女性参与者参与了六边形迷宫实验，并探究了策略使用中的性别差异。虽然结果为先前确定的策略偏好中的性别差异提供了一些支持，但在策略习得、稳定性或多策略能力的新衡量指标上没有显著的性别差异。此外，我们的结果表明，策略偏好并不妨碍学习使用其他策略进行有效导航。重要的是，当前的研究为六边形迷宫作为探索空间导航的无偏方法提供了验证，预计这种易于使用的工具在研究和临床环境中都将具有价值。
