It is well established that humans use self-motion and landmark cues to successfully navigate their environment. Existing research has demonstrated a critical role of the vestibular system in supporting navigation across many species. However, less is known about how vestibular cues interact with landmarks to promote successful navigation in humans. In the present study, we used a motion simulator to manipulate the presence or absence of vestibular cues during a virtual navigation task. Participants learned routes to a target destination in three different landmark blocks in a virtual town: one with proximal landmarks, one with distal landmarks, and one with no landmarks present. Afterwards, they were tested on their ability to retrace the route and find the target destination. We observed a significant interaction between vestibular cues and proximal landmarks, demonstrating that the potential for vestibular cues to improve route navigation is dependent on landmarks that are present in the environment. In particular, vestibular cues significantly improved route navigation when proximal landmarks were present, but this was not significant when distal landmarks or no landmarks were present. Overall, our results indicate that landmarks play an important role in the successful incorporation of vestibular cues to human spatial navigation.

众所周知，人类使用自我运动和地标线索来成功地导航他们的环境。现有的研究已经证明了前庭系统在支持跨许多物种的导航方面的关键作用。然而，人们对前庭线索如何与地标相互作用以促进人类成功导航知之甚少。在本研究中，我们使用运动模拟器在虚拟导航任务期间操纵前庭线索的存在或不存在。参与者在虚拟城镇的三个不同地标块中学习到目标目的地的路线：一个有近端地标，一个有远端地标，一个没有地标。之后，他们接受了回溯路线和找到目标目的地的能力测试。我们观察到前庭线索和近端地标之间的显着相互作用，表明前庭线索改善路线导航的潜力取决于环境中存在的地标。特别是，当存在近端地标时，前庭线索显着改善了路线导航，但当远端地标或没有地标存在时，这并不显着。总体而言，我们的结果表明，地标在将前庭线索成功整合到人类空间导航中发挥着重要作用。但是当远端地标或没有地标存在时，这并不重要。总体而言，我们的结果表明，地标在将前庭线索成功整合到人类空间导航中发挥着重要作用。但是当远端地标或没有地标存在时，这并不重要。总体而言，我们的结果表明，地标在将前庭线索成功整合到人类空间导航中发挥着重要作用。