Title: Cognitive maps for a 3D world

Abstract: 

Humans can build a mental model (“cognitive map”) of the world. Cognitive maps are useful for physical navigation as well as more general human cognition. Physical space is 3D and abstract space can be higher-dimensional. However, a majority of previous research investigated spatial navigation in a simple flat 2D environment, leaving a 2D Euclidean map as a dominant model in the field. How do humans build cognitive maps for a 3D world where they can move vertically as well as horizontally? How do they navigate on a non-flat surface embedded in the 3D world? Do they use a dimension-reduced map or a volumetric map? Can people overcome a 2D Euclidean geometrical prior? In my talk, I will present a series of fMRI and virtual reality (VR) experiments which investigated the nature of cognitive maps for various 3D environments.