US-German Research Proposal: Neural Dynamics of the Integration of Egocentric and Allocentric Cues in the Formation of Spatial Maps During Fully-Mobile Human Navigation

我们如何在一个新的城市、建筑或其他环境中熟悉自己的道路？当我们在新环境中移动时，将视觉、听觉和其他感官印象整合在一起时，空间学习就发生了。这个合作项目将调查人类参与者在积极探索新型实验室迷宫时的大脑动态。我们的目标是首次观察和模拟在人类主动导航过程中支持空间学习的分布式大脑动态。为了做到这一点，研究人员将使用一种原始的、非侵入性的“移动脑/身体成像”（MoBI）数据记录方法，该方法结合了同时进行的全身动作捕捉和脑电（EEG或“脑波”）记录。先进的信号处理方法将允许他们使用非侵入性记录的头皮脑电图数据来跟踪大脑皮层内脑电活动的时间过程。受试者积极探索计算机定义的迷宫。除了将新方法和软件引入认知神经科学领域之外，该项目还可以改进生活和工作环境的设计，开发新的有效方法来提高儿童和空间残疾人的空间导航能力，指导更好地培训和评估急救人员的行动，使远程观测车辆能够更有效地运行。并促进发展保持老年人空间定位能力的方法。该项目将有三个技术目标：1)进一步开发和利用一种新的计算方法来研究自由运动个体的脑源网络动力学；2)观察和模拟支持三维空间物理导航的瞬态皮层网络相互作用；3)研究支持特定模态与超模态信息处理的大脑网络处理物理环境空间结构的感觉信息的程度。为了实现这些目标，该项目将利用合作者的独特优势和研究人员开拓性MoBI实验室的独特设施。该项目将使用一种新颖的“稀疏ar”（感知稀疏增强现实）方法，其中参与者的空间环境信息以简短的声音或光线爆发的形式传递。当我们接收和整合关于空间环境中不熟悉或熟悉的特征的新证据时，稀疏增强现实方法将允许对我们的大脑活动如何变化进行建模。德国联邦教育和研究部（BMBF）正在资助一个伙伴项目。

How do we learn our way around a new city, building, or other environment? Spatial learning occurs as we integrate the visual, auditory, and other sensory impressions we gather as we move through the new environment. This collaborative project will investigate the brain dynamics of human participants as they actively navigate new types of laboratory mazes. The goal is to observe and model, for the first time, the distributed brain dynamics that support spatial learning during active human navigation. To do this, the investigators will use an original, non-invasive "mobile brain/body imaging" (MoBI) data recording approach that combines simultaneous full body motion capture and brain electrical (EEG or "brainwave") recording. Advanced signal processing methods will allow them to use non-invasively recorded scalp EEG data to follow the time courses of electrical brain activity within the cerebral cortex as
subjects actively explore computer-defined mazes. Beyond introducing new methods and software to the field of cognitive neuroscience, the project could enable improved design of living and work environments, development of new and effective approaches to improving spatial navigation abilities of children and people with spatial disabilities, guide better training for and evaluation of first responder operations, enable more effective operation of remote observation vehicles, and spur development of methods to maintain spatial orienting abilities in the elderly.The project will have three technical objectives: 1) To further develop and exploit a new computational approach to studying brain source network dynamics of freely moving individuals, 2) to observe and model transient cortical network interactions supporting physical navigation in 3-D space, and 3) to examine to what extent sensory information about the spatial structure of the physical environment is processed in brain networks that support modality-specific vs. supra-modal information processing. To accomplish these objectives, the project will capitalize on unique strengths of the collaborators and the unique facilities available in the investigators' pioneering MoBI laboratories. The project will use a novel "Sparse-AR" (perceptually sparse augmented-reality) approach in which information about the participant's spatial environment is delivered in the form of brief bursts of sound or light. The Sparse-AR approach will allow modeling of how our brain activities change as we receive and integrate new bits of evidence about unfamiliar or familiar features of the spatial environment.A companion project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF).