Visual experience facilitates allocentric spatial representation

• Published in: Behavioural brain research 2013-01, Vol.236 (1), p.175-179
• Main Authors: Pasqualotto, Achille, Spiller, Mary Jane, Jansari, Ashok S., Proulx, Michael J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Blindness; Blindness - psychology; Brain; Cognitive ability; Cues; Exploratory Behavior - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Learning - physiology; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Multisensory integration; Neural plasticity; Ophthalmology; Orientation - physiology; Proprioception - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Recognition, Psychology; Reference frames; Space Perception - physiology; Spatial cognition; spatial discrimination; spatial memory; User-Computer Interface; Vestibular Function Tests; Vision disorders; Visual experience; Visual Perception - physiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0166-4328; 1872-7549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2012.08.042

▸ Previous studies showed that regular sets of objects are allocentrically represented. ▸ We tested congenital and late blind, and blindfolded sighted participants. ▸ Visual experience determined the reference frame for spatial representation. ▸ by affecting the multisensory brain areas involved in spatial cognition. Representing the position of the objects independently from our own position is a fundamental cognitive ability. Here we investigated whether this ability depends on visual experience. Congenitally blind, late blind and blindfolded sighted participants haptically learnt a room-sized regularly shaped array of objects, and their spatial memory was tested to determine which spatial reference frame was used. Crucially, the use of an object-based reference frame requires representing the regular structure of the array. We found that blindfolded sighted and late blind participants, that is those with visual experience, showed a preferential use of the object-based or ‘allocentric’ reference frame. On the contrary, congenitally blind participants preferred a self-based, or egocentric, reference frame. This suggests that, due to its developmental effect on the multisensory brain areas involved in spatial cognition, visual experience is necessary to develop a preference for an object-based, allocentric reference frame.