On the hemispheric specialization for categorical and coordinate spatial relations: a review of the current evidence

Our spatial mental representations allow us to give refined descriptions of the environment in terms of the relative locations and distances between objects and landmarks. In this study, we investigated the effects of familiarity with the everyday environment, in terms of frequency of exploration and mode of transportation, on categorical and coordinate spatial relations, on young and elderly participants, controlling for socio-demographic factors. Participants were tested with a general anamnesis, a neuropsychological assessment, measures of explorations and the Landmark Positioning on a Map task. The results showed: (a) a modest difference in performance with categorical spatial relations; (b) a larger difference in coordinate spatial relations; (c) a significant moderating effect of age on the relationship between familiarity and spatial relations, with a stronger relation among the elderly than the young. Ceteris paribus, the role of direct experience with exploring their hometown on spatial mental representations appeared to be more important in the elderly than in the young. This advantage appears to make the elderly wiser and likely protects them from the detrimental effects of aging on spatial mental representations.

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Hemispheric specialization in the coding of spatial relations

10.31274/rtd-20201023-44 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

Glenn Eric Casner

Keyword(s):

Hemispheric Specialization ◽

Spatial Relations

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Focusing Narrowly or Broadly Attention When Judging Categorical and Coordinate Spatial Relations: A MEG Study

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0083434 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. e83434 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Raffaella Franciotti ◽

Stefania D’Ascenzo ◽

Alberto Di Domenico ◽

Marco Onofrj ◽

Luca Tommasi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spatial Relations ◽

Coordinate Spatial Relations

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Categorical and coordinate spatial relations in working memory: An fMRI study

Brain Research ◽

10.1016/j.brainres.2009.07.088 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 1297 ◽

pp. 70-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Ineke J.M. van der Ham ◽

Mathijs Raemaekers ◽

Richard J.A. van Wezel ◽

Anna Oleksiak ◽

Albert Postma

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Coordinate Spatial Relations

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Hemispheric Processing of Categorical and Coordinate Spatial Relations in the Absence of Low Spatial Frequencies

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892902317236902 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 291-297 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Matia Okubo ◽

Chikashi Michimata

Keyword(s):

Visual Field ◽

Spatial Frequency ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Spatial Relation ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

Right Visual Field ◽

Spatial Frequencies ◽

Categorical Task ◽

The Right ◽

Coordinate Spatial Relations

Right-handed participants performed the categorical and coordinate spatial relation judgments on stimuli presented to either the left visual field—right hemisphere (LVF-RH) or the right visual field—left hemisphere (RVF-LH). The stimulus patterns were formulated either by bright dots or by contrast-balanced dots. When the stimuli were bright, an RVF-LH advantage was observed for the categorical task, whereas an LVF-RH advantage was observed for the coordinate task. When the stimuli were contrast balanced, the RVF-LH advantage was observed for the categorical task, but the LVF-RH advantage was eliminated for the coordinate task. Because the contrast-balanced dots are largely devoid of low spatial frequency content, these results suggest that processing of low spatial frequency is responsible for the right hemisphere advantage for the coordinate spatial processing.

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Upright or inverted, entire or exploded: right-hemispheric superiority in face recognition withstands multiple spatial manipulations

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.1456 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. e1456 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Giulia Prete ◽

Daniele Marzoli ◽

Luca Tommasi

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Face Processing ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Hemispheric Specialization ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

Hemispheric Lateralization ◽

Social Stimuli ◽

Identity Recognition ◽

The Right

Background.The ability to identify faces has been interpreted as a cerebral specialization based on the evolutionary importance of these social stimuli, and a number of studies have shown that this function is mainly lateralized in the right hemisphere. The aim of this study was to assess the right-hemispheric specialization in face recognition in unfamiliar circumstances.Methods.Using a divided visual field paradigm, we investigated hemispheric asymmetries in the matching of two subsequent faces, using two types of transformation hindering identity recognition, namely upside-down rotation and spatial “explosion” (female and male faces were fractured into parts so that their mutual spatial relations were left intact), as well as their combination.Results.We confirmed the right-hemispheric superiority in face processing. Moreover, we found a decrease of the identity recognition for more extreme “levels of explosion” and for faces presented upside-down (either as sample or target stimuli) than for faces presented upright, as well as an advantage in the matching of female compared to male faces.Discussion.We conclude that the right-hemispheric superiority for face processing is not an epiphenomenon of our expertise, because we are not often exposed to inverted and “exploded” faces, but rather a robust hemispheric lateralization. We speculate that these results could be attributable to the prevalence of right-handedness in humans and/or to early biases in social interactions.

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