Colby College.
The University of Arizona.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Feb;33(2):167-179. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01653. Epub 2020 Nov 23.
Moving our body through space is fundamental to human navigation; however, technical and physical limitations have hindered our ability to study the role of these body-based cues experimentally. We recently designed an experiment using novel immersive virtual-reality technology, which allowed us to tightly control the availability of body-based cues to determine how these cues influence human spatial memory [Huffman, D. J., & Ekstrom, A. D. A modality-independent network underlies the retrieval of large-scale spatial environments in the human brain. , , 611-622, 2019]. Our analysis of behavior and fMRI data revealed a similar pattern of results across a range of body-based cues conditions, thus suggesting that participants likely relied primarily on vision to form and retrieve abstract, holistic representations of the large-scale environments in our experiment. We ended our paper by discussing a number of caveats and future directions for research on the role of body-based cues in human spatial memory. Here, we reiterate and expand on this discussion, and we use a commentary in this issue by A. Steel, C. E. Robertson, and J. S. Taube (Current promises and limitations of combined virtual reality and functional magnetic resonance imaging research in humans: A commentary on Huffman and Ekstrom (2019). , 2020) as a helpful discussion point regarding some of the questions that we think will be the most interesting in the coming years. We highlight the exciting possibility of taking a more naturalistic approach to study the behavior, cognition, and neuroscience of navigation. Moreover, we share the hope that researchers who study navigation in humans and nonhuman animals will synergize to provide more rapid advancements in our understanding of cognition and the brain.
在空间中移动身体是人类导航的基础；然而，技术和物理限制阻碍了我们研究这些基于身体的线索在实验中如何影响人类空间记忆的能力。我们最近设计了一项使用新颖的沉浸式虚拟现实技术的实验，该技术使我们能够严格控制基于身体的线索的可用性，以确定这些线索如何影响人类的空间记忆[Huffman, D. J., & Ekstrom, A. D. A modality-independent network underlies the retrieval of large-scale spatial environments in the human brain.,, 611-622, 2019]。我们对行为和 fMRI 数据的分析揭示了一系列基于身体的线索条件下相似的结果模式，因此表明参与者可能主要依赖视觉来形成和检索我们实验中大规模环境的抽象、整体表示。我们在论文的结尾讨论了关于身体线索在人类空间记忆中的作用的一些注意事项和未来研究方向。在这里，我们重申并扩展了这一讨论，并使用本期的一篇评论文章（由 A. Steel、C. E. Robertson 和 J. S. Taube 撰写的“虚拟现实和功能磁共振成像联合研究在人类中的当前承诺和局限性：对 Huffman 和 Ekstrom（2019 年）的评论”）作为一个有帮助的讨论点，探讨了我们认为未来几年最有趣的一些问题。我们强调了采取更自然的方法来研究导航的行为、认知和神经科学的令人兴奋的可能性。此外，我们希望研究人类和非人类动物导航的研究人员能够协同合作，在我们对认知和大脑的理解方面取得更快的进展。
