Navigating image space

Glennerster, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8674-2763 (2025) Navigating image space. Neuropsychologia, 219. 109233. ISSN 0028-3932 doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109233

Abstract/Summary

Navigation means getting from here to there. Unfortunately, for biological navigation, there is no agreed definition of what we might mean by ‘here’ or ‘there’. Computer vision (‘Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping’, SLAM) uses a 3D world-based coordinate frame but that is a poor model for biological spatial representation. Another possibility is to use an image-based rather than a map-based representation. The image-based strategy is made simpler if the observer maintains fixation on a stationary point in the scene as they move. This strategy would require a system for relating different fixation points to one another as the observer moves through the environment. I describe how this can be done by, first, relating fixations to an egocentric representation of visual direction and, second, encoding egocentric representations in a coarse-to-fine hierarchy. The coarsest level of this hierarchy is, in some sense, a world-based frame as it does not vary with eye rotation or observer translation. This representation could be implemented as a ‘policy’, a term used in reinforcement learning to describe a set of states and associated actions, or a ‘graph’ that describes how images or sensory states can be connected by actions. I discuss some of the psychophysical evidence relating to these differing hypotheses about spatial representation and navigation. I argue that this evidence supports image-based rather than map-based representation.

Additional Information	Due to errors in the published version, the accepted version of this article is the correct version. For the Corrigendum to the published version, see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393225002295
Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/124266
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109233
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Perception and Action
Additional Information	Due to errors in the published version, the accepted version of this article is the correct version. For the Corrigendum to the published version, see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393225002295
Publisher	Elsevier
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item