The impact of cartographic cues on neural representations of space

使用一种融合了地图学和认知神经科学的创新跨学科研究方法，我们努力获得关于人类如何处理来自地图的信息以及如何优化地图和基于地图的界面的效率以改善空间导航的新的和基本的见解。地图提供有关方位的信息，即对象位置(地标)、距离和地标之间的角度。到目前为止，我们仍然缺乏对这些制图组成部分如何有助于产生空间技能的认知和神经科学水平的系统理解。这个跨学科项目的目的是阐明构成人类内侧颞叶“空间地图”的脑细胞和网络是如何通过真实地图的制图线索来稳定的。有关导航相关细胞类型的神经科学证据可能为基本理解基于地图的信息处理提供一个新的概念和经验框架。我们假设，揭示人脑中空间反应细胞(特别是网格细胞)如何对地图提示做出反应的机制，将使地图设计得到系统的改进。因此，地图线索是理解和影响网格单元活动的关键，这反过来可能会改善使用地图时的导航性能。突出显示特定的地图元素并以与网格单元的属性匹配的方式插入附加图形结构可以以受控的方式对齐网格单元激发。在该项目中，我们将进行一系列的行为和功能磁共振实验，以系统地检测各种不同的地图线索对网格细胞的放电模式和导航性能的影响。我们假设不同的几何对称性可以为空间信息处理提供不同的功能：正交线和边界可以提供方向信息，而网格单元轴提供的重复三角形平铺可以提取距离信息。因此，该项目的目标是首次将关于网格细胞的神经科学成果转化为直接的实际应用。

Using an innovative interdisciplinary research approach that integrates cartography and cognitive neuroscience, we strive to obtain new and fundamental insights into how humans process information from maps and how the efficiency of maps and map-based interfaces to improve spatial navigation can be optimized. Maps provide information about orientation, i.e. object positions (landmarks), distances, and angles between landmarks. To date, we still lack a systematic understanding on a cognitive and neuroscientific level of how such cartographic components contribute to generating spatial skills. The aim of the interdisciplinary project is to clarify how brain cells and networks that constitute a “spatial map” in the human medial temporal lobe are stabilized by cartographic cues of real maps. Neuroscientific evidence about navigationally relevant cell types may provide a novel conceptual and empirical framework for a fundamental understanding of map-based information processing. We hypothesize that revealing the mechanisms of how spatially responsive cells in the human brain (and in particular, grid cells) react to cartographic cues will enable systematic improvements of map designs. Cartographic cues are thus key to both understanding and influencing grid cell activities, which may in turn improve navigation performance when using maps. Highlighting specific map elements and inserting additional graphic structures in a way that matches the properties of grid cells may align grid cell firing in a controlled manner. In the project, we will conduct a series of behavioral and fMRI experiments in order to systematically examine the effects of various different cartographic cues on the firing patterns of grid cells and navigational performance. We hypothesize that different geometrical symmetries may serve distinct functions for spatial information processing: While orthogonal lines and borders may provide directional information, the repetitive triangular tiling provided by grid cell axes enables extracting distance information. This project thus aims for the first transfer of neuroscientific findings about grid cells to a direct practical application.