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Independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information

Visuospatial working memory enables us to maintain access to visual information for processing even when a stimulus is no longer present, due to occlusion, our own movements, or transience of the stimulus. Here we show that, when localizing remembered stimuli, the precision of spatial recall does no...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Aagten-Murphy, David, Bays, Paul M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6400418/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30789899
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006563
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author Aagten-Murphy, David
Bays, Paul M.
author_facet Aagten-Murphy, David
Bays, Paul M.
author_sort Aagten-Murphy, David
collection PubMed
description Visuospatial working memory enables us to maintain access to visual information for processing even when a stimulus is no longer present, due to occlusion, our own movements, or transience of the stimulus. Here we show that, when localizing remembered stimuli, the precision of spatial recall does not rely solely on memory for individual stimuli, but additionally depends on the relative distances between stimuli and visual landmarks in the surroundings. Across three separate experiments, we consistently observed a spatially selective improvement in the precision of recall for items located near a persistent landmark. While the results did not require that the landmark be visible throughout the memory delay period, it was essential that it was visible both during encoding and response. We present a simple model that can accurately capture human performance by considering relative (allocentric) spatial information as an independent localization estimate which degrades with distance and is optimally integrated with egocentric spatial information. Critically, allocentric information was encoded without cost to egocentric estimation, demonstrating independent storage of the two sources of information. Finally, when egocentric and allocentric estimates were put in conflict, the model successfully predicted the resulting localization errors. We suggest that the relative distance between stimuli represents an additional, independent spatial cue for memory recall. This cue information is likely to be critical for spatial localization in natural settings which contain an abundance of visual landmarks.
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spelling pubmed-64004182019-03-17 Independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information Aagten-Murphy, David Bays, Paul M. PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Visuospatial working memory enables us to maintain access to visual information for processing even when a stimulus is no longer present, due to occlusion, our own movements, or transience of the stimulus. Here we show that, when localizing remembered stimuli, the precision of spatial recall does not rely solely on memory for individual stimuli, but additionally depends on the relative distances between stimuli and visual landmarks in the surroundings. Across three separate experiments, we consistently observed a spatially selective improvement in the precision of recall for items located near a persistent landmark. While the results did not require that the landmark be visible throughout the memory delay period, it was essential that it was visible both during encoding and response. We present a simple model that can accurately capture human performance by considering relative (allocentric) spatial information as an independent localization estimate which degrades with distance and is optimally integrated with egocentric spatial information. Critically, allocentric information was encoded without cost to egocentric estimation, demonstrating independent storage of the two sources of information. Finally, when egocentric and allocentric estimates were put in conflict, the model successfully predicted the resulting localization errors. We suggest that the relative distance between stimuli represents an additional, independent spatial cue for memory recall. This cue information is likely to be critical for spatial localization in natural settings which contain an abundance of visual landmarks. Public Library of Science 2019-02-21 /pmc/articles/PMC6400418/ /pubmed/30789899 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006563 Text en © 2019 Aagten-Murphy, Bays http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Aagten-Murphy, David
Bays, Paul M.
Independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information
title Independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information
title_full Independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information
title_fullStr Independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information
title_full_unstemmed Independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information
title_short Independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information
title_sort independent working memory resources for egocentric and allocentric spatial information
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6400418/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30789899
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006563
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