The origins of human orientation

摘要

When humans are lost or disoriented they use geometric clues to find their way. These clues-lengths of surfaces, angles, and intersections-provide the information to create geometric layouts in their minds. But is this systemrnlearned or controlled by genetically determined brain development? Laura Lakusta et al. (pp. 2813-2817) testec whether individuals with Williams syndrome, which is caused by a genetic deletion on chromosome 7 and results in abnormal parietal and hippocampal brain development are able to use geometric cues to find hidden objects. The authors discovered that when placed in a rectangular roor with four black walls, individuals with Williams syndrome were unable to find a toy that was hidden in front of them after they were blindfolded and disoriented for 10 second; However, if one wall of the room was blue, some of the individuals were successful in relocating the target object. The research confirms previous notions that damage to parietal and hippocampal brain regions can hinder an individual's ability to create spatial layouts in the mind, according to the authors.