MULTISENSORYSPACE · Multisensory integration in the cognitive representation of space

Remembering the position of objects is crucial for the navigation through daily-life environments like buildings and cities. In spite of the fact that environmental sensory information is inherently multimodal, the research on object location memory is still almost exclusively focused on the visual domain. In this Fellowship project, we propose an extensive analysis of the cognitive mechanisms and brain correlates of object location memory for non-visual and multisensory objects. In a series of innovative experiments that combines behavioural and neuroimaging techniques we will test memory for the location of auditory, tactile and multisensory objects in direct comparison to the memory for visual objects position. We will also test the influence of gender and blindness on multimodal object spatial mapping. This topic is original and have an important applicative resonance for the design of effective spatial navigation tools in blindness, for neuropsychological rehabilitation and diagnosis and for the exploration of real and virtual multisensory spatial environments. This study could also give an important contribution to the theoretical debate about cognitive representation of space.