Sign in

SCANN Lab

@scannlab.bsky.social
53 followers 58 following 42 posts

The Spatial Cognition and Navigational Neuroscience Lab at the University of Texas at Arlington. #cognitive #neuroscience #psychology #vr # #fmri Directed by @stevenmweisberg.bsky.social

PostsRepliesMedia
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
We are excited to share that our lab manager, Sara Harader, recently published a paper based on research she conducted as an undergraduate in Dr. Arne Ekstrom’s lab at the University of Arizona. Read more here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Angular path integration errors are greater for trajectories with full loop crossovers
Does crossing one’s path result in greater uncertainty in one’s internal sense of direction (path integration)? The present study addressed this issue using immersive virtual reality involving matc...
111
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Congratulations to Dr. Weisberg on receiving 2026 Early Career Award from the Psychonomic Society! We're excited to celebrate this well deserved recognition of his significant contributions to the field. @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social
011
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
We are excited to share that another SCANN Lab member, Ece Yüksel, has successfully defended her dissertation! Congratulations on this milestone and thank you for your many contributions to SCANN Lab.
032
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
We are excited to share that Ashish Sahoo has successfully completed his dissertation defense. He has also been awarded with the UF Hipergator Early Career award and the Gerber BCN Psychology Research award for his outstanding work. We congratulate him on this significant achievement!
052
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
SCANN Lab attended the CRaNE Conference in Atlanta this May, where we presented some of our latest research! @crane-navsci.bsky.social navsci.gatech.edu
110
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
We are thrilled to share that SCANN Lab member @ashleykrause.bsky.social has published her work on place attachment influencing meaning in life! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Sites of meaning-making: Places of attachment afford psychological meaning
Do the places we live offer a source of meaning? In five studies, we investigate whether the places people are attached to afford higher meaning. Spec…
011
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
The SCANN Lab is officially extramurally funded at UTA! Dr. Weisberg and Dr. Hunter Ball, received a grant from the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities to study GPS-supported navigation and support leadership development through the ASCENDR Leadership Program.
061
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
We recently wrote on these ideas too! In a chapter published in the Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, we dive into how these differences emerge from navigation strategies and underlying cognitive systems: osf.io/9x6a3
osf.io
OSF
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Why do some people never get lost while others rely on GPS? A new review, written by @hugospiers.bsky.social and @emre-yavuz-21.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s44... argues that navigation ability is shaped by both fixed factors (age, genetics) and modifiable ones (sleep, exercise, experience).
nature.com
Determinants of individual navigation ability - Nature Reviews Psychology
There is substantial variation across people in navigation ability, which is shaped by multiple factors. In this Review, Yavuz and Spiers organize these factors into lifetime, lifestyle and personal a...
2227
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Individuals with aphantasia have difficulty forming mental imagery, and with her future research, Zoe aims to develop more inclusive methods for teaching complex concepts to students.
101
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Zoe Cronin, our first year PhD student at SCANN lab was recently interviewed by Dallas Morning News where she discusses a condition known as aphantasia and its relationship to spatial cognition. Read more on this here: www.msn.com/en-us/money/...
001
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
They emphasize the importance of open science, standardizing navigation assessment methods, and focusing more on real-world challenges in navigation, particularly those experienced by older adults.
011
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
A recent book on navigation, “Challenges in Navigation Research”, includes a final chapter that was co-authored by Dr. Weisberg. In that chapter, the authors propose a framework for future research in the field. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
022
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
RSC was successful at decoding categories during the approach-avoidance task as well as at task decoding. These findings suggest that activity in these scene selective regions is not fixed and is influenced by behavioral goals.
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Participants performed a categorization (classify scenes by type) and approach-avoidance task (decide whether or not to approach a scene). Results showed that OPA had the highest category decoding, OPA and PPA were successful at decoding categories during the categorization task
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
In their study, Koc et al. looked at how scene selective brain regions (PPA, OPA, RSC) change their activity depending on behavioral goals. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Task-modulated neural responses in scene-selective regions of the human brain
The study of scene perception is crucial to the understanding of how one interprets and interacts with their environment, and how the environment impa…
061
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
They showed that contextual changes (such as adding novel wall, ceiling and floor colors and textures) led to greater overestimation of distance judgments, followed by global geometric changes, while local geometric changes had weaker effects.
001
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
In this recently published study, the researchers manipulated geometric and contextual cues in a virtual environment and observed their effects on participants’ distance judgments. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Dr. Weisberg explains how using AI to investigate the relationship between brain structure and navigational abilities suggests that there might not be any relation between the two as previously thought. Read more on this news article here: www.uta.edu/news/news-re...
uta.edu
UTA researcher uses AI to rethink navigation skills
UTA researcher finds no clear link between brain structure and navigation ability in young adults
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Dr. Weisberg just went on his first professional podcast! Tune in to hear about how people navigate, why GPS can help OR hurt, and what aging teaches us about flexibility and strategy. Give it a listen! open.spotify.com/episode/0Z5o... And reach out! We'd love to hear what you think.
open.spotify.com
How Humans Find Their Way: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Navigation
0125
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
In other words, memory seems to be biased toward a familiar or preferred way of seeing a scene or object, and then the brain expands or contracts the memory of what we have seen to match that preferred view.
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
They showed that this transition point was not related to how far away the viewer is, but rather to the view that people considered to “look best” (cont.)
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
As we move away from an object our view shifts along a continuum from object (when we are close) to scene (when we are far away). Park et al. examined this continuum. @taliakonkle.bsky.social jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx...
jov.arvojournals.org
Systematic transition from boundary extension to contraction along an object-to-scene continuum | JOV | ARVO Journals
002
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Their behavioral testing also confirmed that people generally rate concave shapes more as scenes compared to convex ones. This is consistent with the idea that scenes are perceived as something that we can act within (hence the concavity).
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Using concave versus convex images of scenes and objects, this article found that PPA corresponds more strongly to concave scenes/objects compared to convex ones. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Concavity as a diagnostic feature of visual scenes
Despite over two decades of research on the neural mechanisms underlying human visual scene, or place, processing, it remains unknown what exactly a “…
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Although the discovery happened decades earlier, the ability to synchronize the animal’s location with neural firing using newly developed technology led to greater acceptance of place cells and the concept of a cognitive map (although controversial) in the scientific community.
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Here, John O'keefe, the 2014 Nobel Prize winner, describes the process of discovering hippocampal place cells that led to his Nobel Prize. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
As the paper notes, the reason for this behavior in older rats (and in humans) is still unclear. Anatomically, this might be due to reliance on extra-hippocampus circuits rather than circus within the hippocampus which typically support allocentric strategies.
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Using the Morris Watermaze, researchers found that younger rats converge on allocentric strategies earlier in the trials, while older rats continue switching between allocentric and egocentric strategies until the last trial. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Older Rats Switch Between Distinctly Different Behavior Strategies to Solve the Spatial Version of the Morris Watermaze
It has been established that aged rats are worse at learning the spatial version of the Morris watermaze task compared to their younger counterparts. It remains unclear, however, whether this poorer ...
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
This shows how well a space is encoded correlates with better encoding of new information encountered in that space. Smaller spaces with more corners tend to be better remembered. These findings could inform environmental design, especially for those with impaired navigation.
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
In this recent study, the researchers looked at the usefulness of spaces as placeholders for memories. They assessed how well different spaces are encoded and how well an object within those spaces is remembered at a later time. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
000
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
This study shows leisure activities support domain-specific protection against cognitive decline in visual attention and memory beyond job type & education. Given the role of these processes in spatial navigation, such activities might preserve navigational abilities with aging.
001
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
New findings suggest memory framing effects are more complex than previously thought and may not require emotional arousal: psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
psycnet.apa.org
APA PsycNet
011
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Ece Yuksel presented her poster “Age differences in spatial navigation across real and virtual worlds: A mixed-methods approach” at Psychonomic Society 2025, for which she was awarded the Graduate Travel Award. See all SCANN Lab Psychonomic posters here: scannlab.org/psynom-2025
012
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
We are now spread across three institutions, but the SCANN LAN is now reunited at @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social @eceyuksel.bsky.social @adamjbarnas.com @chengsiy.bsky.social
4 smiling people in a wintry icicle like landscape
053
Reposted by SCANN Lab
Maureen Ritchey @maureenritchey.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Representing the MemoLab at Psychonomics, Valentina Krenz will be presenting tomorrow, poster II-153, on the effects of retrieval practice on memory precision 🌠
1111
Reposted by SCANN Lab
Chengsi Yi @chengsiy.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
I will be presenting my latest endeavor on spatial navigation strategy optimization featuring RL modeling and a new DSP task! And here's link to our fleet: scannlab.org/psynom-2025 See you around the Poster session I at I-069! @scannlab.bsky.social @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social #psynom25
scannlab.org
Redirect
041
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
The SCANN Lab will be at @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social this week (except for @stevenmweisberg.bsky.social - he's stuck in Texas.) If you're there, connect with our awesome PhD students! And if you're NOT there, you can still follow our work. www.scannlab.org/psynom-2025
Postcard with information about three presenters from the SCANN Lab and information about their poster session. More information in the subsequent posts about each one.
112
Reposted by SCANN Lab
Hugo Spiers @hugospiers.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
A huge thankyou to @alexaroblesgil.bsky.social for covering our research in the Marshall Islands for the @nytimes.com ! In the photo Ken Daniels (an expert indigenous sailor) is looking towards the horizon whilst wearing an fNIRS system. Analysis underway! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/s...
nytimes.com
A Voyage Into the Art of Finding One’s Way at Sea
0267
SCANN Lab @scannlab.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
We are excited to announce that Dr. Steven Weisberg, was recently featured in The Dallas Morning News! Read the full article here: www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/10...
dallasnews.com
New Texas initiative could shape the future of dementia research, scientists say
Researchers hope the proposed institute will expedite scientific discoveries and AI innovation.
011
Reposted by SCANN Lab
Arne Ekstrom @adekstreme.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
what happens when you spend two weeks learning new navigation or memory skills? as shown in our recent paper below, brain network connectivity changes but not hippocampal or other brain volumes! special thanks to collaborators Li Zheng and Steve Weisberg elifesciences.org/articles/106...
elifesciences.org
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
Learning new navigation or memory skills engages flexible brain network dynamics without altering gray matter, white matter, or hippocampal structure.
2175