Séminaire : Stephen RAMANOEL

Visual information is not processed homogeneously across the visual field, as observed in a wide range of behaviors including visual search, object recognition, and spatial navigation. Despite numerous studies on left-right visual field asymmetry, there is a paucity of data investigating upper-lower visual field differences and their evolution across the lifespan. In addition, considering that the upper and lower visual fields afford distinct types of visual cues and that scene-selective regions exhibit retinotopic biases, it is of interest to elucidate whether the vertical location of visual information modulates navigation behavior and related neural activity in these high-level visual areas in young and healthy older adults. During this seminar, I will present a series of results proposing an experimental continuum ranging from highly controlled source-monitoring task with objects presented in the upper or lower visual field to spatial orientation tasks manipulating vertical position as well as spatial properties of visual cues within the scene. The presented results will encompass behavioral measures (reaction times, accuracy, eye-tracking) in conjunction with retinal imaging techniques (dynamic perimetry) and brain imaging modalities (fMRI for representational similarity analyses and EEG with source reconstruction).