Spontaneous Spatial Cognition Emerges during Egocentric Video Viewing through Non-invasive BCI

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that non-invasive EEG-based BCIs can decode detailed egocentric 6D spatial pose during passive video viewing, revealing spontaneous neural encoding of spatial information in naturalistic conditions.

Contribution

It is the first to show that EEG can decode spontaneous egocentric spatial representations during passive viewing, advancing understanding of neural spatial encoding without active task engagement.

Findings

EEG can decode 6D egocentric pose during passive viewing.

Structured visual motion enhances decoding accuracy.

Distinct EEG channels encode position and orientation.

Abstract

Humans possess a remarkable capacity for spatial cognition, allowing for self-localization even in novel or unfamiliar environments. While hippocampal neurons encoding position and orientation are well documented, the large-scale neural dynamics supporting spatial representation, particularly during naturalistic, passive experience, remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on electroencephalography (EEG) can decode spontaneous, fine-grained egocentric 6D pose, comprising three-dimensional position and orientation, during passive viewing of egocentric video. Despite EEG's limited spatial resolution and high signal noise, we find that spatially coherent visual input (i.e., continuous and structured motion) reliably evokes decodable spatial representations, aligning with participants' subjective sense of spatial engagement. Decoding performance further improves when visual input is presented at a frame rate of 100 ms per image, suggesting alignment with intrinsic neural temporal dynamics. Using gradient-based backpropagation through a neural decoding model, we identify distinct EEG channels contributing to position -- and orientation specific -- components, revealing a distributed yet complementary neural encoding scheme. These findings indicate that the brain's spatial systems operate spontaneously and continuously, even under passive conditions, challenging traditional distinctions between active and passive spatial cognition. Our results offer a non-invasive window into the automatic construction of egocentric spatial maps and advance our understanding of how the human mind transforms everyday sensory experience into structured internal representations.