Dataset Information

Shared contributions of the head and torso to spatial reference frames across spatial judgments.

ABSTRACT: Egocentric frames of reference take the body as the point of origin of a spatial coordinate system. Bodies, however, are not points, but extended objects, with distinct parts that can move independently of one another. We recently developed a novel paradigm to probe the use of different body parts in simple spatial judgments, what we called the misalignment paradigm. In this study, we applied the misalignment paradigm in a perspective-taking task to investigate whether the weightings given to different body parts are shared across different spatial judgments involving different spatial axes. Participants saw birds-eye images of a person with their head rotated 45° relative to the torso. On each trial, a ball appeared and participants made judgments either of whether the ball was to the person's left or right, or whether the ball was in front of the person or behind them. By analysing the pattern of responses with respect to both head and torso, we quantified the contribution of each body part to the reference frames underlying each judgment. For both judgment types we found clear contributions of both head and torso, with more weight being given on average to the torso. Individual differences in the use of the two body parts were correlated across judgment types indicating the use of a shared set of weightings used across spatial axes and judgments. Moreover, retesting of participants several months later showed high stability of these weightings, suggesting that they are stable characteristics of people.

SUBMITTER: Longo MR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7520546 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Shared contributions of the head and torso to spatial reference frames across spatial judgments.

Longo Matthew R MR Rajapakse Sampath S SS Alsmith Adrian J T AJT Ferrè Elisa R ER

Cognition 20200626

Egocentric frames of reference take the body as the point of origin of a spatial coordinate system. Bodies, however, are not points, but extended objects, with distinct parts that can move independently of one another. We recently developed a novel paradigm to probe the use of different body parts in simple spatial judgments, what we called the misalignment paradigm. In this study, we applied the misalignment paradigm in a perspective-taking task to investigate whether the weightings given to di ...[more]

PMID: 32599311

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Project description:Primates rely predominantly on vision to gather information from the environment and neurons representing visual space and gaze position are found in many brain areas. Within the medial temporal lobe, a brain region critical for memory, neurons in the entorhinal cortex of macaque monkeys exhibit spatial selectivity for gaze position. Specifically, the firing rate of single neurons reflects fixation location within a visual image (Killian et al., 2012). In the rodents, entorhinal cells such as grid cells, border cells, and head direction cells show spatial representations aligned to visual environmental features instead of the body (Hafting et al., 2005; Sargolini et al., 2006; Solstad et al., 2008; Diehl et al., 2017). However, it is not known whether similar allocentric representations exist in primate entorhinal cortex. Here, we recorded neural activity in the entorhinal cortex in two male rhesus monkeys during a naturalistic, free-viewing task. Our data reveal that a majority of entorhinal neurons represent gaze position and that simultaneously recorded neurons represent gaze position relative to distinct spatial reference frames, with some neurons aligned to the visual image and others aligned to the monkey's head position. Our results also show that entorhinal neural activity can be used to predict gaze position with a high degree of accuracy. These findings demonstrate that visuospatial representation is a fundamental property of entorhinal neurons in primates and suggest that entorhinal cortex may support relational memory and motor planning by coding attentional locus in distinct, behaviorally relevant frames of reference.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The entorhinal cortex, a brain area important for memory, shows striking spatial activity in rodents through grid cells, border cells, head direction cells, and nongrid spatial cells. The majority of entorhinal neurons signal the location of a rodent relative to visual environmental cues, representing the location of the animal relative to space in the world instead of the body. Recently, we found that entorhinal neurons can signal location of gaze while a monkey explores images visually. Here, we report that spatial entorhinal neurons are widespread in the monkey and these neurons are capable of showing a world-based spatial reference frame locked to the bounds of explored images. These results help connect the extensive findings in rodents to the primate.

Project description:BackgroundReference frames ground spatial communication by mapping ambiguous language (for example, navigation: "to the left") to properties of the speaker (using a Relative reference frame: "to my left") or the world (Absolute reference frame: "to the north"). People's preferences for reference frame vary depending on factors like their culture, the specific task in which they are engaged, and differences among individuals. Although most people are proficient with both reference frames, it is unknown whether preference for reference frames is stable within people or varies based on the specific spatial domain. These alternatives are difficult to adjudicate because navigation is one of few spatial domains that can be naturally solved using multiple reference frames. That is, while spatial navigation directions can be specified using Absolute or Relative reference frames ("go north" vs "go left"), other spatial domains predominantly use Relative reference frames. Here, we used two domains to test the stability of reference frame preference: one based on navigating a four-way intersection; and the other based on the sport of ultimate frisbee. We recruited 58 ultimate frisbee players to complete an online experiment. We measured reaction time and accuracy while participants solved spatial problems in each domain using verbal prompts containing either Relative or Absolute reference frames. Details of the task in both domains were kept as similar as possible while remaining ecologically plausible so that reference frame preference could emerge.ResultsWe pre-registered a prediction that participants would be faster using their preferred reference frame type and that this advantage would correlate across domains; we did not find such a correlation. Instead, the data reveal that people use distinct reference frames in each domain.ConclusionThis experiment reveals that spatial reference frame types are not stable and may be differentially suited to specific domains. This finding has broad implications for communicating spatial information by offering an important consideration for how spatial reference frames are used in communication: task constraints may affect reference frame choice as much as individual factors or culture.

Dataset Information

Shared contributions of the head and torso to spatial reference frames across spatial judgments.

Publications

Shared contributions of the head and torso to spatial reference frames across spatial judgments.

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