Our research: how humans navigate, remember and get lost

Six research topics in spatial cognition

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  Mental imagery: seeing ancient Rome with the mind's eye

  Mental imagery is the ability to see with the mind's eye: reliving objects, places or events already experienced, but also visualising future events, objects that do not yet exist and fantasy worlds. It underpins abstract thinking, divergent thinking, human navigation and language (Palmiero et al., 2016; 2015). Specific disorders range from the absence of imagery (aphantasia, found in healthy people) to the loss of specific images (imaginative neglect for places and/or objects in patients with acquired brain damage: Guariglia et al., 2013). Imagery also changes across the lifespan and is shaped by individual differences (Piccardi et al., 2015; Palermo et al., 2016; Palmiero et al., 2016).

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  Individual differences in spatial cognition: why everyone's compass differs

  Spatial cognition is shaped by internal and external factors. Internal factors include gender, age, navigational strategies, cognitive styles, familiarity with the environment and professional or sporting experience, all of which produce different orientation skills (Nori and Piccardi, 2011). Men tend to use more complex navigational strategies, yet women perform equally well once they reach an optimal level of environmental learning (Piccardi et al., 2011). Cognitive styles determine which aspects of the environment we notice, while professional or sporting experience allows some people to excel at particular navigational tasks (Giancola et al., 2021; Piccardi et al., 2016; Verde et al., 2016; 2014; 2013). Although internal factors reflect innate propensities, navigational skills can be improved through dedicated training (Boccia et al., 2017) or by acting on the environment — for example by introducing emotional landmarks (Palmiero and Piccardi, 2017; Piccardi et al., 2020) and designing spaces flexible to different individual characteristics.

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  Topographic memory: learning the city, street by street

  Topographic memory allows us to maintain online, learn and recall environmental information. It is related to homing behaviour and is dissociated from visuo-spatial memory in reaching space (Piccardi et al., 2008; 2010; 2011): brain lesions can selectively impair memory for the environment while sparing memory for the layout of objects (Piccardi et al., 2010; Bianchini et al., 2014). An fMRI study showed that, although the networks are similar, specific areas support topographic memory versus reaching-space memory (Nemmi et al., 2013). Development follows distinct evolutionary stages: memory in reaching space matures earlier than memory in navigational space (Piccardi et al., 2014) — we first know the space near us, then explore the space around us. When this development fails, developmental topographical disorientation can emerge.

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  Divergent thinking: creativity as a path to well-being

  Creativity predicts educational success and well-being and has been proposed as a way to improve quality of life in healthy and pathological ageing (Palmiero et al., 2012, 2014, 2016a,b; Palmiero, 2015). Mental imagery provides access to thoughts, symbolisation and the combination of elements, facilitating new ideas. General creativity relies on multi-component neural networks supporting executive functions, whereas domain-specific creativity (verbal, musical and visuo-spatial) depends on specialised brain regions (Boccia et al., 2016; Palmiero et al., 2016).

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  Travel planning: finding a new route when the road is closed

  When roadworks block our usual street and we must take another to reach our destination, we are solving a problem. Before an important appointment we plan the most convenient route, weighing traffic, distance and tolls. This form of planning — travel planning — is dissociated from our ability to plan other actions (Bocchi et al., 2017). In all these situations we rely on executive functions closely tied to spatial cognition.

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  Emotions and mood: emotional landmarks along the way

  Mood can be experimentally manipulated through induction procedures such as music or emotional pictures. When emotional landmarks are placed along a route, navigation performance improves and people remember the route and environment better. Both positive and negative landmarks affect topographic memory (Palmiero and Piccardi, 2017; Piccardi et al., 2020). Manipulating the emotional content of environments may have important applications in the rehabilitation of spatial orientation deficits.