Recognizing places versus navigating through them are differently sensitive to increasingly peripheral visual information

It is well-documented that the two visual streams for object processing (i.e., vision-for-perception and vision-for-action) are differently sensitive to increasingly peripheral stimuli, with peripheral visual information especially important for the vision-for-action system. Here we hypothesize the same is true for scene processing, with peripheral visual information especially important for “visually-guided navigation” (like vision-for-action) compared to “scene categorization” (like vision-for-perception). We directly tested this hypothesis in two ways. First, using eye tracking, we monitored the eye movements of adult participants while they performed a visually-guided navigation task and a scene categorization task. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that participants primarily used peripheral vision during the visually-guided navigation task and central vision during the scene categorization task. Second, using resting-state fMRI, we investigated the functional connectivity between the foveal to increasingly more peripheral regions of the primary visual cortex (V1) and two scene-selective regions – the occipital place area (OPA), which is implicated in visually-guided navigation, and the parahippocampal place area (PPA), which is implicated in scene categorization. Again, consistent with our hypothesis, we found that the OPA shows an exclusive connection to peripheral V1, while the PPA exhibits a gradient of connectivity from foveal to peripheral V1. Taken together, these findings provide converging behavioral and neural evidence that recognizing places versus navigating through them are differently sensitive to increasingly peripheral stimuli, with peripheral visual information especially important for navigating through a place.