How the Brain Creates Spatial Awareness
Written by Kriti Iyer
Edited by Aaron Wright
May 2, 2021
Edited by Aaron Wright
May 2, 2021
Many of us feel completely lost when we arrive in a new location for the first time, so naturally, navigating through traffic in order to find a destination in a timely manner may seem like an unimaginable task. As time progresses, our brains start to recognize certain spaces that we pass by frequently and enable us to remember locations through a mental map of sorts. A recent discovery by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, attests to this phenomenon and sheds light on how our brain can remember areas and create spatial awareness.
Scientists at UCLA conducted a study with epilepsy patients who had electrodes inserted into their brains to understand how various parts of the human brain work together to track where an individual travels (“How Our Brains,” 2020). In the study, each participant was provided with a backpack containing equipment that would detect brain activity with the help of the electrodes (“Scientists Discover,” 2020). The participants were asked to approach an assigned location in that room, and then to find a hidden spot; researchers found that the total time taken to find the hidden spot in the room decreased as the number of trials increased, suggesting that there was some brain activity correlated with this task (“Scientists Discover,” 2020). When unpacking the results further, principal investigators learned that when an individual was looking for a spot in the room, they exhibited an elevated level of theta rhythm activity, where theta waves, a type of brain wave that is thought to be associated with memory, are thought to hold navigational purposes (“How Our Brains,” 2020).
Even more interesting was the finding that when these individuals who were given a backpack were asked to observe other participants attempt the same task of finding a hidden spot, the individuals who observed others expressed elevated theta rhythm activity too (“Scientists Discover,” 2020)! This suggests that not only do we create spatial awareness for an area as we repeatedly encounter it, but also exhibit the ability to create spatial awareness for an area as others approach it as well (“Scientists Discover,” 2020). These findings have prompted some researchers to claim that the phenomena of creating spatial awareness is what aids us in our daily activities, such as “avoiding bumping into someone on the dance floor” (“How Our Brains,” 2020). A future direction of research for these scientists is to determine if there is a possibility of our brains controlling our social interaction as well (“How Our Brains,” 2020). So, the next time you are trying to find a new location, just remember that the more you encounter the area over time, the better you will remember where it is!
Works Cited
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences. (2020, December 23). How our brains track where we and others go: Study suggests our brains may be more in tune with each other than we think. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/2012 23125757.htm
University of California - Los Angeles (2020, December 23). Scientists discover how our brains track where we and others go. National Institutes of Health. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/scientists-discover-how-our-brains-track-where-we-others-go