Common and distinct neural trends of allocentric and egocentric spatial coding: An ALE meta‐analysis

Abstract

The uniqueness of neural processes between allocentric and egocentric spatial coding has been controversial. The distinctive paradigms used in previous studies for manipulating spatial coding could have attributed for the inconsistent results. This study was aimed to generate converging evidence from previous functional brain imaging experiments for collating neural substrates associated with these two types of spatial coding. An additional aim was to test whether test‐taking processes would have influenced the results. We obtained coordinate‐based functional neuroimaging data for 447 subjects and performed activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta‐analysis. Among the 28 experiments, the results indicate two common clusters of convergence. They were the right precuneus and the right superior frontal gyrus as parts of the parieto‐frontal circuit. Between‐type differences were in the parieto‐occipital circuit, with allocentric showing convergence in the superior occipital gyrus (SOG) cluster compared with egocentric showing convergence in the middle occipital gyrus (MOG) cluster. Task‐specific influences were only found in allocentric spatial coding. Spatial judgment‐oriented tasks seem to increase the demands on manipulating spatial relationships among the visual objects, while spatial navigation tasks seem to increase the demands on maintaining object representations. Our findings address the theoretical controversies on spatial coding that both the allocentric and egocentric types are common in their processes mediated by the parieto‐frontal network, while unique and additional processes in the allocentric type are mediated by the parieto‐occipital network. The positive results on possible task‐specific confound offer insights into the future design of spatial tasks for eliciting spatial coding processes.

Neuroanatomical correlates of the perception of body axis orientation during body tilt: a voxel-based morphometry study

“…Several studies have reported the activation in areas of the ventrolateral occipito-temporal cortex, such as the occipital 9 , 10 , 29 , 33 and lateral temporal cortices 10 , 33 , during an egocentric judgment task. Furthermore, a recent meta-analysis using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) has shown the specific involvement of the right middle occipital gyrus to egocentric spatial judgment but not to allocentric judgment 34 . The present results support this finding and suggest a specific contribution of the right middle occipital gyrus to egocentric spatial coding.…”

Functional and Structural Architectures of Allocentric and Egocentric Spatial Coding in Aging: A Combined DTI and fMRI Study

“…The parieto-premotor pathway is involved in eSC, and its core neural substrates are the cIPL, superior parietal lobule (SPL; including IPS), somatosensory motor area (SMA), and FEF (1,28,29). IPS is related to attention and FEF is related to the action template formations (7,18,30). The parieto-medial temporal pathway, on the other hand, is involved in aSC (1), and its key neural substrates are the caudal part of IPL (area PG) (31,32), PCC (33), the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), temproparietal junction (TPJ), and medial temporal lobule (MTL) (34,35).…”

EEG analysis of the visual motion activated vection network in left- and right-handers

“…Moreover, it is thought to be critically involved in the translation of information between allocentric (world-centred) and egocentric (self-centred) spatial reference frames 48,49,61,[65][66][67][68][69] . Relatedly, the precuneus is thought to play a role in developing and maintaining concurrent egocentric and allocentric spatial reference frames 48,70 . There is also evidence to suggest that the posterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortex both contribute to our sense of selflocation, with the posterior cingulate being particularly involved in the integration of neural representations of self-location and body ownership 71 .…”