Virtual Reality

Virtual environments allow us to investigate spatial processing in a controlled manner, ensuring consistent intersubject conditions. Subjects are able to engage in large-scale activities such as navigation while stationary in an fMRI scanner. We can create circumstances which could not otherwise happen, for example to investigate contextual effects on memory. Diagnostic and potentially therapeutic tools are under development which can be used by clinical participants at the bedside.

Figure 1. A) Distinct neural systems for wayfinding and route following (Hartley et al., 2003, Neuron).

A) Subjects in an fMRI scanner navigated between identifiable landmarks in two VR towns. Each successive target was indicated by a picture displayed continuously in the lower right part of the display. In one town, subjects were required to find new direct paths between goals which they had not previously followed (wayfinding). In the other they followed a fixed route that they had practiced (route following).	B) The paths taken by the subjects (blue) were recorded and compared with the ideal (red) shortest routes between the target locations (numbers).

C) Activation of the hippocampus (in wayfinding relative to following a trail of markers) correlated with navigation performance across subjects (i.e. more activation in better navigators).	D) In contrast, better navigators showed greater activation of the head of the right caudate nucleus when following a fixed route (compared with wayfinding).

This page last modified 17 November, 2011 by [ICN Web Team]

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