Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42835126›Full record

ArticleiScience2026

Shared and distinct cognitive processes across multiple virtual navigation tasks.

Varnan Chandreswaran, David Stawarczyk, Anne Bierbrauer, David Clewett, Iva Brunec, Gillian Coughlan, Lila Davachi, Hugo Spiers, Michael Hornberger, Marta Silva and 7 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in iScience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

17 authors.

Varnan ChandreswaranDepartment of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
David StawarczykPsychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Place des Orateurs 1 (B33), 4000 Liège, Belgium.
Anne BierbrauerInstitute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
David ClewettDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Iva BrunecDepartment of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Gillian CoughlanDepartment of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Lila DavachiDepartment of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Hugo SpiersInstitute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK.
Michael HornbergerNorwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
Marta SilvaDepartment of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Lluis FuentemillaCognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research, 08907 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain.
Morgan BarenseDepartment of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada.
Jason OzubkoDepartment of Psychology, State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454, USA.
Lukas KunzDepartment of Epileptology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Dorothea PinkDepartment of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
Nikolai AxmacherDepartment of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
Hui ZhangDepartment of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although virtual navigation tasks are widely used to investigate human spatial navigation, the processes underlying behavior across tasks remain poorly understood. To address this gap, we administered four virtual navigation tasks assessing spatial learning, path integration, and wayfinding in a single cohort. Participants additionally completed four event segmentation tasks to examine links with episodic memory. Across tasks, spatial cues such as landmarks or the arena center improved performance, with better outcomes when navigating near these cues and when goals were nearby. Despite these shared effects, between-task correlations were sparse. Significant associations emerged between the two path integration tasks, whereas reliance on spatial cues showed little correspondence. However, principal component analysis identified two behavioral dimensions: one aligned with self-reported preference for scene-based navigation, the other with reduced route-based navigation. Episodic memory showed no association with navigation. Virtual navigation tasks thus capture partially distinct processes, and dimensionality reduction helps disentangle navigation mechanisms.

Indexed as

event boundariesindividual differencespath integrationspatial memoryspatial navigationvirtual navigationwayfinding

Identifiers

PMID42835126
PMCPMC13634904

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.