Suzuki Shosuke, Kamps Frederik S, Dilks Daniel D, Treadway Michael T
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Cortex. 2021 Jul;140:199-209. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.03.027. Epub 2021 Apr 22.
Successfully navigating the world requires avoiding boundaries and obstacles in one's immediately-visible environment, as well as finding one's way to distant places in the broader environment. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that these two navigational processes involve distinct cortical scene processing systems, with the occipital place area (OPA) supporting navigation through the local visual environment, and the retrosplenial complex (RSC) supporting navigation through the broader spatial environment. Here we hypothesized that these systems are distinguished not only by the scene information they represent (i.e., the local visual versus broader spatial environment), but also based on the automaticity of the process they involve, with navigation through the broader environment (including RSC) operating deliberately, and navigation through the local visual environment (including OPA) operating automatically. We tested this hypothesis using fMRI and a maze-navigation paradigm, where participants navigated two maze structures (complex or simple, testing representation of the broader spatial environment) under two conditions (active or passive, testing deliberate versus automatic processing). Consistent with the hypothesis that RSC supports deliberate navigation through the broader environment, RSC responded significantly more to complex than simple mazes during active, but not passive navigation. By contrast, consistent with the hypothesis that OPA supports automatic navigation through the local visual environment, OPA responded strongly even during passive navigation, and did not differentiate between active versus passive conditions. Taken together, these findings suggest the novel hypothesis that navigation through the broader spatial environment is deliberate, whereas navigation through the local visual environment is automatic, shedding new light on the dissociable functions of these systems.
成功地在世界中导航需要避开眼前可见环境中的边界和障碍，以及在更广阔的环境中找到通往远处的路。最近的神经影像学研究表明，这两种导航过程涉及不同的皮层场景处理系统，枕叶位置区（OPA）支持在局部视觉环境中导航，而后扣带回复合体（RSC）支持在更广阔的空间环境中导航。在这里，我们假设这些系统的区别不仅在于它们所代表的场景信息（即局部视觉环境与更广阔的空间环境），还在于它们所涉及过程的自动性，在更广阔环境中的导航（包括RSC）是有意进行的，而在局部视觉环境中的导航（包括OPA）是自动进行的。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和迷宫导航范式来测试这一假设，在该范式中，参与者在两种条件下（主动或被动，测试有意与自动处理）导航两种迷宫结构（复杂或简单，测试更广阔空间环境的表征）。与RSC支持在更广阔环境中进行有意导航的假设一致，在主动导航而非被动导航期间，RSC对复杂迷宫的反应比对简单迷宫的反应显著更强。相比之下，与OPA支持在局部视觉环境中进行自动导航的假设一致，即使在被动导航期间OPA也有强烈反应，并且在主动与被动条件之间没有差异。综上所述，这些发现提出了一个新的假设，即在更广阔空间环境中的导航是有意的，而在局部视觉环境中的导航是自动的，这为这些系统的可分离功能提供了新的线索。
