After a right thalamic stroke, an 86-year-old man presented an acute pure left representational neglect in the absence of any perceptual neglect. On spatial mental imagery tasks, the patient systematically omitted items located on his left side, but only when a vantage point was given. This suggests that (1) pure representational neglect is not just a residual finding after recovery from global...

While research on the spatial representation of number has provided substantial evidence for a horizontally oriented mental number line, recent studies suggest vertical organization as well. Directly comparing the relative strength of horizontal and vertical organization, however, we found no evidence of spontaneous vertical orientation (upward or downward), and horizontal trumped vertical when...

Robust and effortless spatial orientation critically relies on "automatic and obligatory spatial updating", a largely automatized and reflex-like process that transforms our mental egocentric representation of the immediate surroundings during ego-motions. A rapid pointing paradigm was used to assess automatic/obligatory spatial updating after visually displayed upright rotations with or withou...

We investigated individual differences in interactively exploring 3D virtual objects. 36 participants explored 24 simple and 24 difficult objects (composed of respectively three and five Biederman geons) actively, passively, or not at all. Both their 3D mental representation of the objects and visuo-spatial ability was assessed. Results show that, regardless of the object's complexity, people w...

Spatial ability tests like mental rotation and paper-folding provide strong predictions of an individual’s achievement in science and engineering. What cognitive skills are involved in them? We use a computational model to analyze these tasks, asking how much information must be processed to perform them. The models demonstrate that in some cases stimuli can be vastly simplified, resulting in c...

This paper presents a computational modeling approach for negative effects simulation of visual distraction while driving a car. In order to investigate these effects, an experiment was firstly implemented on a driving simulator. Twenty participants were invited to perform a car following task in different driving conditions (12 driving scenarios), with or without a secondary task of visual dis...

Searching for alternative solutions of an indeterminate reasoning task is an important and necessary step in order to draw certain inferences as in the case of deduction. To elucidate the underlying mental representations and processes of the search for alternatives in spatial reasoning, an experiment was conducted that used specific material stemming from AI research of Qualitative Spatial Rea...

We reviewed literature to understand when a spatial map for time is available in the brain. We carefully defined the concepts of metrical map of time and of conceptual representation of time as the mental time line (MTL) in order to formulate our position. It is that both metrical map and conceptual representation of time are spatial in nature. The former should be innate, related to motor/impl...