Spatial cognition

Our research concerns mechanisms and brain regions involved in selection and memory of visuo-spatial information. At present, a first line of experiments concerns the role of the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus and their interactions for spatial short-term memory ("working memory"). Disorders of this memory system are an essential and disabling clinical feature of major neurological and psychiatric disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. We investigate the role of spatial working memory for human behavior by using psychophysical and neuropsychological methods in patients with focal lesions of the brain and healthy humans. A second line of research concerns the mechanisms the brain uses to integrate the rapid series of snapshots acquired by fast eye movements (“saccades”) to a seemingly immediate and stable representation of the entire visual scene. We aim at elucidating the functional neuro-anatomy of this process of “trans-saccadic integration”. Normal subjects and patients with focal lesions of the brain are investigated with psychophysical tasks, testing various aspects of space constancy and trans-saccadic integration. We aim at a better understanding of defective visual perception in neuro-psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, in which deficits in the awareness of one’s own actions and its sensory consequences may be a core deficit underlying seemingly disparate cognitive impairments.

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Selected Publications

Ostendorf F, Liebermann D, Ploner CJ (2010)

Human thalamus contributes to perceptual stability across eye movements. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107:1229-1234

Braun M, Weinrich C, Finke C, Ostendorf F, Lehmann TN, Ploner CJ (2010).

Lesions affecting the right hippocampal formation differentially impair short-term memory of spatial and non-spatial associations. Hippocampus 2010 Jan 15 (epub ahead of print)

Braun M, Finke C, Ostendorf F, Lehmann TN, Hoffmann KT, Ploner CJ (2008).

Reorganization of associative memory in humans with long-standing hippocampal damage. Brain 131:2742-2750

Ostendorf F (2008)

Saccadic eye movements illuminate chronometry of perceptual localization. J Neurosci 28:9090-9091

Finke C, Ostendorf F, Martus P, Braun M, Ploner CJ (2008)

Inhibition of orienting during a memory-guided saccade task shows a Mexican-hat distribution. Neuroscience 153:189-195

Finke C, Braun M, Ostendorf F, Lehmann TN, Hoffmann KT, Kopp U, Ploner CJ (2007)

The human hippocampal formation mediates short-term memory of colour-location associations. Neuropsychologia 46:614-623

Ostendorf F, Fischer C, Finke C, Ploner CJ (2007)

Perisaccadic compression correlates with saccadic peak velocity: differential association of eye movement dynamics with perceptual mislocalization patterns. J Neurosci 27:7559-63

Ostendorf F, Fischer C, Gaymard B, Ploner CJ (2006)

Perisaccadic mislocalization without saccadic eye movements. Neuroscience 137:737-745

Ploner CJ. Stenz U, Fassdorf K, Arnold G (2005)

Egocentric and allocentric spatial memory in idiopathic cervical dystonia. Neurology 64:1733-8

Ploner CJ, Gaymard BM, Rivaud-Péchoux S, Pierrot-Deseilligny C (2005)

The prefrontal substrate of reflexive saccade inhibition in humans. Biol Psychiatry 57:1159-65

Ostendorf F, Finke C, Ploner CJ (2004)

Inhibition of visual discrimination during a memory-guided saccade task. J Neurophysiol 92:660-4

Pierrot-Deseilligny C, Müri RM, Ploner CJ, Gaymard B, Demeret S, Rivaud-Péchoux S (2003)

Decisional role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in ocular motor behaviour. Brain 126:1460-73

Gaymard B, Lynch J, Ploner CJ, Condy C, Rivaud-Péchoux S (2003)

The parieto-collicular pathway: anatomical location and contribution to saccade generation. Eur J Neurosci 17:1518-26

Gaymard B, François C, Ploner CJ, Condy C, Rivaud-Péchoux S (2003)

A direct prefrontotectal tract against distractibility in the human brain. Ann Neurol 53:542-5

Jungehülsing GJ, Ploner CJ (2003)

Eyelid tremor in a patient with a unilateral paramedian thalamic lesion. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 74:356-8

Ploner CJ, Tschirch A, Ostendorf F, Dick S, Gaymard BM, Rivaud-Péchoux S, Sporkert F, Pragst F, Stadelmann AM (2002)

Oculomotor effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in humans: implications for the functional neuroanatomy of the brain cannabinoid system. Cereb Cortex 12:1016-1023

Pierrot-Deseilligny C, Müri RM, Rivaud-Péchoux S, Gaymard B, Ploner CJ (2002)

Cortical control of spatial memory in humans: the visuooculomotor model. Ann Neurol 52:10-19

Ploner CJ, Ostendorf F, Brandt SA, Gaymard BM, Rivaud-Péchoux S, Ploner M, Villringer A, Pierrot-Deseilligny C (2001)

Behavioural relevance modulates access to spatial working memory in humans. Eur J Neurosci 13:357-363

Gaymard B, Rivaud-Péchoux S, Yelnik J, Pidoux B, Ploner CJ (2001)

Involvement of cerebello-thalamic pathways in human saccade adaptation. Eur J Neurosci 14:554-560

Ploner CJ, Gaymard BM, Rivaud-Péchoux S, Baulac M, Clémenceau S, Samson S, Pierrot-Deseilligny C (2000)

Lesions affecting the parahippocampal cortex yield spatial memory deficits in humans. Cereb Cortex 10:1211-1216

Ploner CJ, Rivaud-Péchoux S, Gaymard BM, Agid Y, Pierrot-Deseilligny C (1999)

Errors of memory-guided saccades in humans with lesions of the frontal eye field and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. J Neurophysiol 82:1086-1090

Ploner CJ, Gaymard BM, Ehrlé N, Rivaud-Péchoux S, Baulac M, Brandt SA, Clémenceau S, Samson S, Pierrot-Deseilligny C (1999)

Spatial memory deficits in patients with lesions affecting the medial temporal neocortex. Ann Neurol 45:312-319

Ploner CJ, Gaymard B, Rivaud S, Vermersch A-I, Pierrot-Deseilligny C (1998)

Temporal limits of spatial working memory in humans. Eur J Neurosci 10:794-797

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