Egocentric Dominance in Spatial Representations: The Role of Environmental Familiarity in Building Cognitive Maps

Key Points

• This research investigates how environmental familiarity influences egocentric cognitive map formation and individual differences, particularly gender.
• fMRI data analysis used to assess brain regions involved in spatial encoding.
• Comparison of neural pattern similarity in males and females in familiar environments.
• Examination of the role of the retrosplenial complex and parahippocampal place area in spatial representation.
• Significant sex differences in neural pattern similarity were observed in familiar environments.
• Males exhibited higher similarity than females in the entorhinal cortex.
• Strong evidence supports the use of egocentric strategies in cognitive mapping, despite no allocentric effects being found.