Biology subjects

Saulay-Carret, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Saulay-Carret, M..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Neurocognitive dynamics of translating information from a spatial map into action

How do we translate information from a spatial map to action in our immediate surroundings? Despite the widespread use of various tools for orientation, from paper maps to GPS, this fundamental question remains unanswered in our understanding of human spatial navigation. To investigate this, we implemented a perspective-taking task in immersive virtual reality combined with mobile EEG, aiming to disentangle the neurocognitive processes involved. Thirty-eight young adults were presented with a virtual 2D map in which we manipulated both the perspective shift and the physical angle of rotation required to align with a target, as well as the congruency between these two variables. Behaviourally, angular error during pointing increased slightly and linearly with perspective shift. However, the relationship between rotation angle and accuracy revealed a non-linear pattern, with better performance around the antero-posterior bodily-axis. Regarding congruency, angular error increased for incongruent trials, but only when the perspective-taking angle exceeded 90{degrees}. At the neural level, activity in the retrosplenial complex (RSC) revealed a sequential organization with alpha-band modulation during perspective shift, followed by beta-band activity reflecting preparation for the required physical rotation. In addition, incongruency between perspective-taking and physical rotation increased beta activity in the left temporo-parietal junction (lTPJ). Overall, these findings demonstrate the value of immersive virtual environments to investigate the neural correlates of real-world navigation and the complexity of perspective-taking mechanisms.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Spatial contextual information modulates affordance processing and early electrophysiological markers of scene perception

Scene perception allows humans to extract information from their environment and plan navigation efficiently. The automatic extraction of potential paths in a scene, also referred to as navigational affordances is supported by scene-selective regions (SSRs) that enable efficient human navigation. Recent evidence suggests that the activity of these SSRs can be influenced by information from adjacent spatial memory areas. However, it remains unexplored how these contextual information could influence the extraction of bottom-up information, such as navigational affordances, from a scene and the underlying neural dynamics. Therefore, we analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) in 26 young adults performing scene and spatial memory tasks in artificially generated rooms with varying numbers and locations of available doorways. We found that increasing the number of navigational affordances only impaired performance in the spatial memory task. ERP results showed a similar pattern of activity for both tasks, but with increased P2 amplitude in the spatial memory task compared to the scene memory. Finally, we reported no modulation of the P2 component by the number of affordances in either task. This modulation of early markers of visual processing suggests that the dynamics of SSR activity are influenced by a priori knowledge, with increased amplitude when participants have more contextual information about the perceived scene. Overall, our results suggest that prior spatial knowledge about the scene, such as the location of a goal, modulates early cortical activity associated with scene-selective regions, and that this information may interact with bottom-up processing of scene content, such as navigational affordances.

neuroscience↗