HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 94/2/1432    most recent 00018.2005v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (12) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Van Pelt, S. Articles by Medendorp, W. P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Van Pelt, S. Articles by Medendorp, W. P.

Visuospatial Memory Computations During Whole-Body Rotations in Roll

¹Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, ²Department of Biophysics, and ³FC Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Submitted 7 January 2005; accepted in final form 22 April 2005

We used a memory-saccade task to test whether the location of a target, briefly presented before a whole-body rotation in roll, is stored in egocentric or in allocentric coordinates. To make this distinction, we exploited the fact that subjects, when tilted sideways in darkness, make systematic errors when indicating the direction of gravity (an allocentric task) even though they have a veridical percept of their self-orientation in space. We hypothesized that if spatial memory is coded allocentrically, these distortions affect the coding of remembered targets and their readout after a body rotation. Alternatively, if coding is egocentric, updating for body rotation becomes essential and errors in performance should be related to the amount of intervening rotation. Subjects (n = 6) were tested making saccades to remembered world-fixed targets after passive body tilts. Initial and final tilt angle ranged between –120° CCW and 120° CW. The results showed that subjects made large systematic directional errors in their saccades (up to 90°). These errors did not occur in the absence of intervening body rotation, ruling out a memory degradation effect. Regression analysis showed that the errors were closely related to the amount of subjective allocentric distortion at both the initial and final tilt angle, rather than to the amount of intervening rotation. We conclude that the brain uses an allocentric reference frame, possibly gravity-based, to code visuospatial memories during whole-body tilts. This supports the notion that the brain can define information in multiple frames of reference, depending on sensory inputs and task demands.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Ruiz-Ruiz and J. C. Martinez-Trujillo Human Updating of Visual Motion Direction During Head Rotations J Neurophysiol, May 1, 2008; 99(5): 2558 - 2576. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Van Pelt and W. P. Medendorp Updating Target Distance Across Eye Movements in Depth J Neurophysiol, May 1, 2008; 99(5): 2281 - 2290. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. M. Klier, D. E. Angelaki, and B. J. M. Hess Human Visuospatial Updating After Noncommutative Rotations J Neurophysiol, July 1, 2007; 98(1): 537 - 541. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Glasauer and T. Brandt Noncommutative Updating of Perceived Self-Orientation in Three Dimensions J Neurophysiol, April 1, 2007; 97(4): 2958 - 2964. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Van Pelt and W. P. Medendorp Gaze-Centered Updating of Remembered Visual Space During Active Whole-Body Translations J Neurophysiol, February 1, 2007; 97(2): 1209 - 1220. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Wei, N. Li, S. D. Newlands, J. D. Dickman, and D. E. Angelaki Deficits and Recovery in Visuospatial Memory During Head Motion After Bilateral Labyrinthine Lesion J Neurophysiol, September 1, 2006; 96(3): 1676 - 1682. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. M. Klier, B. J. M. Hess, and D. E. Angelaki Differences in the Accuracy of Human Visuospatial Memory After Yaw and Roll Rotations J Neurophysiol, April 1, 2006; 95(4): 2692 - 2697. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. G. Kaptein and J. A.M. Van Gisbergen Canal and Otolith Contributions to Visual Orientation Constancy During Sinusoidal Roll Rotation J Neurophysiol, March 1, 2006; 95(3): 1936 - 1948. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]