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Three-dimensional scene boundary representations for wall orientation and distance are represented distinctly in the human visual cortex.

Overview

Authors: Yichen Wu1,2,3,4, Sheng Li1,2,3,4
ORCID iDs: Sheng Li
  1. School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
  2. PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China
  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
  4. Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, China
Institutions: Peking University (China)
Journal: PLoS biology, volume 24, issue 3, article e3003541
Dates: received 15 October 2025; accepted 11 March 2026; published online 25 March 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003541 · PMID 41880342 · PMCID PMC13043059 · OpenAlex W7140273456
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: data only (how the code is found and verified)
Categories: fMRI (modality), MEG (modality), human (organism)
Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Connectivity, Statistics, Smoothing, state filtering, decompositions, Machine learning, Preprocessing, fMRI & imaging, Physiology & signal measures
MeSH: Orientation, Spatial*, Spatial Navigation*, Visual Cortex*, Adult, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Magnetoencephalography, Male, Orientation, Visual Perception, Young Adult (* major topic)
Journal subjects: Biology and Life Sciences, Neuroscience, Brain Mapping, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Medicine and Health Sciences, Diagnostic Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Research and Analysis Methods, Imaging Techniques, Radiology and Imaging, Neuroimaging, Anatomy, Brain, Visual Cortex, Cognitive Science, Cognitive Psychology, Perception, Sensory Perception, Vision, Psychology, Social Sciences, Computational Biology, Computational Neuroscience, Coding Mechanisms, Cognition, Linguistics, Semantics, Engineering and Technology, Equipment, Optical Equipment, Cameras
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms (Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: STI2030‐Major Projects (2021ZD0200204); National Natural Science Foundation of China (32271104)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 76 references in the paper

Abstract

Human spatial navigation relies on the brain’s ability to visually represent the 3D layout of the environment. To understand how the brain encodes the layout information, it is crucial to identify the key features of environmental layout and how they are processed in the human brain. The vector coding principle, which highlight the role of boundary distance and orientation, provides a theoretical framework supported by physiological evidence from rodents. In this study, we developed a reconstruction approach to quantitatively estimate 3D layout information from natural indoor scene images. This approach enabled analyses of fMRI data from the large-scale Natural Scenes Dataset (NSD) using vector-based models of 3D layout. To validate the NSD-based results and examine task-related dynamics, we further conducted fMRI and MEG experiments with navigation-related and non-navigational tasks. Controlling for low-, mid-, and high-level visual and semantic features of natural indoor scenes, we found a spatiotemporal dissociation between boundary distance and orientation representations in the human brain. Relative distance was encoded in the early visual cortex during early processing in a task-invariant manner, whereas orientation was represented in scene-selective higher visual areas during later processing and was modulated by navigation-related tasks. Importantly, task modulation manifested as enhanced orientation coding in early visual cortex, potentially reflecting top-down feedback and short-term maintenance mechanisms. Together, these findings provide a novel perspective on how the human brain represents navigation-relevant information about the immediate surrounding environment, advancing our understanding of the neural mechanisms that link perception to action in spatial navigation.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data and to no code of its authors: see the Data section.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

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Data

Datasets cited

  • osf:uxwr4, at OSF; found in the text, “Dissociated representations of boundary…”

Data Availability

Data and script can be found at OSF at https://osf.io/uxwr4/.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 30 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 2 authors, 13 MeSH terms, 2 funders, 73 references.

Cite

This paper

Wu, Y., & Li, S. (2026). Three-dimensional scene boundary representations for wall orientation and distance are represented distinctly in the human visual cortex. PLoS biology, 24(3), e3003541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003541

BibTeX

@article{wu2026three,
author = {Wu, Yichen and Li, Sheng},
title = {{Three-dimensional scene boundary representations for wall orientation and distance are represented distinctly in the human visual cortex}},
journal = {PLoS biology},
year = {2026},
month = mar,
volume = {24},
number = {3},
pages = {e3003541},
publisher = {PLOS},
issn = {1544-9173},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3003541},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003541},
pmid = {41880342},
pmcid = {PMC13043059}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Wu, Yichen
AU - Li, Sheng
TI - Three-dimensional scene boundary representations for wall orientation and distance are represented distinctly in the human visual cortex
T2 - PLoS biology
J2 - PLoS Biol
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/03/25
VL - 24
IS - 3
SP - e3003541
SN - 1544-9173
PB - PLOS
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003541
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003541
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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