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From cognitive maps to spatial schemas

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 24, pages 63–79 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

A schema refers to a structured body of prior knowledge that captures common patterns across related experiences. Schemas have been studied separately in the realms of episodic memory and spatial navigation across different species and have been grounded in theories of memory consolidation, but there has been little attempt to integrate our understanding across domains, particularly in humans. We propose that experiences during navigation with many similarly structured environments give rise to the formation of spatial schemas (for example, the expected layout of modern cities) that share properties with but are distinct from cognitive maps (for example, the memory of a modern city) and event schemas (such as expected events in a modern city) at both cognitive and neural levels. We describe earlier theoretical frameworks and empirical findings relevant to spatial schemas, along with more targeted investigations of spatial schemas in human and non-human animals. Consideration of architecture and urban analytics, including the influence of scale and regionalization, on different properties of spatial schemas may provide a powerful approach to advance our understanding of spatial schemas.

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Fig. 1: Neurocognitive framework of spatial gist and schema.
Fig. 2: Spatial navigation paradigms.
Fig. 3: Sketch map test of remote spatial memory.
Fig. 4: Examples of street networks and their association with the development of navigation ability.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank E. Manley, R.G.M. Morris and D. Yesiltepe for their valuable insight. Preparation of this Review was supported by a Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) York Research Chair to R.S.R. and funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant to M.M. and R.S.R., and an Alzheimer’s Research UK grant to H.J.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada

    Delaram Farzanfar & R. Shayna Rosenbaum

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Delaram Farzanfar & Morris Moscovitch

  3. Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK

    Hugo J. Spiers

  4. Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, Canada

    Morris Moscovitch & R. Shayna Rosenbaum

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All authors contributed to researching data for the article, to discussion of article content, and to reviewing and editing the manuscript before submission. R.S.R. and D.F. wrote a first draft of the article.

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Glossary

Allocentric

A frame of the representation of spatial relationships among objects in an environment that is irrespective of an observer’s point of view.

Associative inference

Assesses learning of a third latent association B–C following direct learning of overlapping associations A–B and A–C.

Axial line

The longest straight line representing the maximum extension of a point of space.

Cognitive map

A representation of relationships among allocentric spatial elements or features in a particular or single environment.

Centrality

In network analyses, measures such as degree, betweenness and closeness that provide indices of connectivity.

Dimensionality reduction

A technique that is widely used in machine learning to reduce the number of attributes in a dataset while maintaining similar information.

Districts

Large-scale sections with a common identifying character, into which observers can enter.

Edges

Boundaries between two regions that break line continuity such as a waterfront.

Event schema

A structured body of prior knowledge that captures common patterns across related experiences of events.

Geometric properties

Three-dimensional structural features of an environment such as the arrangement of buildings at an intersection.

Geometric resemblance

Similarities in geometry within an environment or across multiple environments such as highly similar arrangements of buildings at two different intersections.

Gestalt

Principles to explain how individual elements are perceived as an organized whole.

HPC replay

Reactivation of the sequence of neuronal firing within the hippocampus (HPC) that occurred during a previous experience, believed to contribute to the long-term storage and reconsolidation of memories.

Landmarks

Defined physical elements, such as objects and buildings, that are salient and/or hold functional or navigational meaning.

Nodes

Strategic points of crossing or convergence.

Paths

Channels along which observers move such as streets or walkways.

Pattern separation

A process by which overlapping patterns of neural activity that represent highly similar items or events are made more distinct as they are encoded in memory.

Predictive coding

A neural process by which expectations or ‘mental models’ of the external world based on prior experience are compared against sensory input.

Repetition suppression

Reduced neural activity in response to repeated presentation of a stimulus.

Representational similarity analyses

Characterizations of the neural representation of a stimulus presentation through direct pairwise comparisons of imaged activity patterns associated with each experimental condition in selected brain regions of interest.

Sparse codes

Activation of a small subset of neurons representing a distinct item or event.

Spatial gist

Essential elements of a particular environment.

Spatial schemas

Generalizable spatial representations derived from experiencing many similar environments.

Surface properties

Two-dimensional features such as visual patterns, textures and colours.

Street segments

All the unique sections of a street between junctions that make up a street.

Topology

Mathematical property of geometric objects that are unaffected by continuous change of size and shape.

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Farzanfar, D., Spiers, H.J., Moscovitch, M. et al. From cognitive maps to spatial schemas. Nat Rev Neurosci 24, 63–79 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-022-00655-9

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