Cognitive map formation supported by auditory, haptic, and multimodal information in persons with blindness

Ottink, Loes; Buimer, Hendrik; Raalte, Bram van; Doeller, Christian F.; Geest, Thea M. van der; Wezel, Richard van

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104797

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 95 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…All the participants agreed that tactile hardcopy maps are outdated nowadays, and they greatly appreciated the ability to interact with a digital map on their mobile devices via the vibro-tactile channel. All of them preferred the haptic channel when coupled with the audio channel, thus confirming what had emerged during co-design sessions of our preliminary study and the findings in [ 7 ]; they considered this composite feedback to be the most reliable. The haptic channel was mostly appreciated by blind participants, who proved more skilled at feeling the vibration patterns correctly, and discriminating between different patterns.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 86%

“…The role of non-visual stimuli in the development of spatial knowledge has been a research topic for many years. Ottink et al [ 7 ] provided an overview of neurological studies about the role of auditory and haptic stimuli in the formation of cognitive maps for both sighted and visually impaired persons. They pointed out that although visually impaired people have a slower learning rate, using non-visual hints facilitates the process of learning, and after an adequate training phase, they can build a faithful mental map of a physical space.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Building a cognitive map requires skill in understanding the structure of an environment, describing its organization and understanding its relationships with other physical spaces. These skills are not strictly related to vision and involve different neurological processes depending on whether an individual is visually impaired or not [ 7 – 9 ]. Thinus-Blanc et al [ 10 ] provided thorough insights into how blind persons build mental maps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Exploiting the haptic and audio channels to improve orientation and mobility apps for the visually impaired

Paratore

Leporini

2023

Univ Access Inf Soc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Orientation and mobility apps for visually impaired people are well known to be effective in improving the quality of life for this target group. A mobile application that guides a visually impaired person step-by-step through a physical space is a valuable aid, but it does not provide an overview of a complex environment "at a glance," as a traditional hard-copy tactile map does. The aim of this study is to investigate whether a smartphone GPS map, enriched with haptic and audio hints, can facilitate cognitive mapping for visually impaired users. Encouraged by a preliminary study conducted in co-operation with two visually impaired volunteers, we designed and developed an Android prototype for exploration of an urban area. Our goal was to provide an affordable, portable and versatile solution to help users increase awareness of an environment through the positions of its landmarks and points of interest. Vibro-tactile and audio hints were linked to the coordinates on the map via the GeoJSON data format and were issued exploiting the text-to-speech and vibration features of the mobile device, as they were displayed through the operating system's APIs. Test sessions and interviews with visually impaired users produced encouraging results. Results, to be verified by more extensive testing, overall confirm the validity of our approach and are in line with results found in the literature.

show abstract

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploiting the haptic and audio channels to improve orientation and mobility apps for the visually impaired

Paratore

Leporini

2023

Univ Access Inf Soc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Consequently, the ALE meta-analysis on spatial tasks could only be conducted for EB and SC. Furthermore, very few studies have dealt with the neural mechanisms of navigation, wayfinding and formation of allocentric cognitive maps ( Ottink et al, 2022 ). Future research should therefore focus on better studying these processes; an endeavor that can be facilitated by the recent advances in audio-based virtual reality ( Halko et al, 2014 ; Afonso-Jaco and Katz, 2022 ; Andrade et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural substrates of spatial processing and navigation in blindness: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Even though vision is considered the best suited sensory modality to acquire spatial information, blind individuals can form spatial representations to navigate and orient themselves efficiently in space. Consequently, many studies support the amodality hypothesis of spatial representations since sensory modalities other than vision contribute to the formation of spatial representations, independently of visual experience and imagery. However, given the high variability in abilities and deficits observed in blind populations, a clear consensus about the neural representations of space has yet to be established. To this end, we performed a meta-analysis of the literature on the neural correlates of spatial processing and navigation via sensory modalities other than vision, like touch and audition, in individuals with early and late onset blindness. An activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis of the neuroimaging literature revealed that early blind individuals and sighted controls activate the same neural networks in the processing of non-visual spatial information and navigation, including the posterior parietal cortex, frontal eye fields, insula, and the hippocampal complex. Furthermore, blind individuals also recruit primary and associative occipital areas involved in visuo-spatial processing via cross-modal plasticity mechanisms. The scarcity of studies involving late blind individuals did not allow us to establish a clear consensus about the neural substrates of spatial representations in this specific population. In conclusion, the results of our analysis on neuroimaging studies involving early blind individuals support the amodality hypothesis of spatial representations.

show abstract

“…In short, previous research suggests that PVIs as well as sighted persons can form a mental representation of a tactile map on a behavioural level (Ottink et al, 2022b). It is currently unclear whether learning an environment in a non-visual sensory modality also results in a neural map-like representation similarly as in the visual domain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental maps without vision: Neural signatures of cognitive maps based on haptic input in the hippocampal formation

Ottink,

van den Berg,

Peters

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The human hippocampus is the key region for forming cognitive maps of our environment. Such a map can support spatial navigation. It is unclear whether this area is similarly involved when an environment is explored with our haptic sense. In this study, we investigated the neural representation of distances on a tactile map in the hippocampal formation, in visually impaired and sighted persons. To this end, 47 participants (22 persons with a visual impairment, PVIs, and 25 sighted controls) performed a navigation task where they learned a tactile city-like map including five item locations. We combined magnetic resonance imaging with adaptation analysis to assess representation of distances between item locations in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. Additionally, we assessed cognitive map formation on a behavioural level. We also looked at functional connectivity between navigation-related areas during a subsequent resting-state block. Our data reveal across all participants that the left entorhinal cortex represents distances between locations on a tactile map. Here, we provide the first evidence that maps in the hippocampal formation is preserved when an environment is presented in a non-visual modality. The results also suggest that both PVIs and sighted persons constructed accurate cognitive maps of the tactile environment on a behavioural level. However, early PVIs showed lower performance compared to late PVIs, suggesting an advantage of visual experience. Additionally, we reveal functional connectivity between areas that were involved in the navigation task during a subsequent resting-state block. This might suggest either visual imagination of stimuli during the preceding tasks, or cognitive processes related to our spatial navigation task, which possibly involve replay of stimulus-specific activity.

show abstract

Cognitive map formation supported by auditory, haptic, and multimodal information in persons with blindness

Cited by 14 publications

References 95 publications

Exploiting the haptic and audio channels to improve orientation and mobility apps for the visually impaired

Exploiting the haptic and audio channels to improve orientation and mobility apps for the visually impaired

Neural substrates of spatial processing and navigation in blindness: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

Mental maps without vision: Neural signatures of cognitive maps based on haptic input in the hippocampal formation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About