ABSTRACT The development and popularisation of digital media are reshaping our spatial cognition and accelerating the fusion of virtual and physical place experiences. However, research on how place meaning is understood in screen-mediated virtual spaces and how media environments with varying levels of immersion shape this understanding remains underexplored. This study addresses two core questions: How do digital media with different levels of immersion influence the understanding of place meaning in screen-mediated virtual places? And what is the relationship between virtual and physical place experiences in this process? Through a comparative case study of the ‘Pixel China’ project on Bilibili, we analyse the experiential differences between high-immersion video game players and low-immersion social media viewers. Findings reveal that players, through immersive place construction, cultivate a dialectical place attitude and reconstruct virtual places as expressions of personal spatial vision. In contrast, viewers, through collective interpretation and association, perceive virtual places as digital utopias for reflecting upon physical environment. This study contributes to digital geography by clarifying the mediating role of media environments in virtual place meaning construction and the virtual-physical place interactive relationship.

ABSTRACT To achieve desirable spatial developments and to address societal transitions such as the energy transition, participatory planning must move beyond late-stage involvement aimed at securing acceptance of predefined plans, which restricts the creation of shared and desired future visions. Participatory visioning at the strategic stage enables stakeholders to collaboratively define forward-looking outcomes. This study applies an integrated visioning approach to develop a regional spatial energy vision in Switzerland, evaluated through an ex-post survey (participants: N = 46; non-participants: N = 703). Results show that (i) strategic visioning supports shared spatial visions, (ii) participation increases approval and fosters learning, and (iii) communicating outcomes extends benefits and legitimacy. Overall, the findings demonstrate the value of participatory foresight in aligning spatial energy planning with community priorities and developing desired futures.

Anisometropic amblyopia is the most common cause of visual morbidity in childhood which is characterized by reduced spatial vision due to refractive error. This study was planned to determine the visual outcome after full refractive correction of anisometropic amblyopia among 5-15 years old children. The Cross sectional interventional study was conducted conducted in the Departments of Community Ophthalmology and Ophthalmology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka from March 2017 to august 2019. Children (5-15 years) having myopic, hypermetropic & astigmatic refractive error between two eyes will be minimum 1.0 D difference after refraction and didn’t get any treatment for this problem yet were the study population. Total 52 untreated children were included in the study. 3 children did not attend the follow up visit. The mean age of the subjects of our study was 9.47 years, range of age was 5-15 years. 44 (89.8%) patients were bilateral & 5 (10.2%) were unilateral. After full correction of refractive error with spectacles alone improved anisometropic amblyopic eyes visual acuity an average of 2.3 lines in snellen’s chart. Visual acuity improved from baseline by 2 or more lines (95% CI) in 85% of the patients and by 3 or more lines in 49.3%. This improvement is statistically significant (P<0.0001). Additionally, amblyopia resolved in 7 of 49 (15%) patients with residual amblyopia who continued to be treated with spectacles even after completion of follow up plan. Improvement of visual acuity continued beyond the initial 12 weeks of spectacle wearing for 37 (75.5%) of the 49 patients completing the initial 12 week visit, after completing 24 weeks, it was 26 (53.1%). The mean VA of the right eyes at baseline was 0.45 Log MAR unit. In 2nd visit shows the mean of VA is 0.34 log MAR unit and in 3rd visit mean is 0.23 log MAR unit. Total improvement in right eye was 0.22 logMAR unit. The mean VA of the left eyes at baseline was 0.51 LogMAR unit. In 2nd visit shows the mean of VA is 0.37 logMAR unit and in 3rd visit VA mean is 0.30 logMAR unit. Total improvement in right eye was 0.21 logMAR unit. Average improvement in both eyes 0.215 logMAR unit. So, results shows that refractive correction is a powerful treatment modality for young children with anisometropic amblyopia. If we can detect them earlier then we should have given these children a better vision & prosperous life. J.Natl.Inst.Ophthalmol.2024;7(2): 20-27

ABSTRACT Urban form in Kosovo has been shaped by successive political transitions, post-war reconstruction and a rapidly evolving municipal planning system in a post-socialist and post-war context. Despite the formal establishment of planning legislation and decentralized governance, many municipalities continue to develop in the absence of approved zoning and regulatory plans, resulting in widespread informal and uncoordinated urban growth. This study employs a qualitative and spatially informed methodology combining chronological document analysis, policy and legal review, semi-structured interviews with municipal officials and GIS-based spatial analysis. A detailed case study of the municipality of Vushtrri is used to examine how legal provisions and governance practices materialize in urban space. The findings show that weak institutional capacity, delayed implementation of zoning instruments and extensive reliance on Article 18 of the Construction Law have enabled permit-based development to substitute formal planning. This practice has contributed to fragmented urban form, high levels of illegal construction and governance driven by legal interpretation rather than spatial vision. By demonstrating how temporary legal mechanisms become structurally embedded in post-conflict planning systems, the study contributes to broader debates on urban governance and urban form in post-socialist and transitional contexts beyond Kosovo.

ABSTRACT Forums play an important role in addressing interdependent policy issues, and their effectiveness depends on the continuous adaptation of forum rules. Yet, it remains unclear whether rules are exclusively used and adapted to improve forum effectiveness. In this article, we therefore investigate the influence of individual goals of forum founders, forum interdependencies, and changes in higher‐level institutions on the use and adaptation of forum rules. To this end, we conduct a case study of a state‐initiated geographically transboundary forum in Dutch strategic spatial planning. Building on in‐depth interviews, document analysis, and nonparticipant observations, we find that forum rule adaptation is driven by a combination of finding effective policy solutions, the individual pursuit of the forum founder to create a new national spatial vision, the formation of the national government, provincial elections, the fall of the national government, and decision‐making in other forums. These findings suggest that forum rule use and adaptation results from an interplay between seeking forum effectiveness, the self‐interest of forum founders, and various polycentric governance linkages, rather than the desire to improve forum effectiveness alone.

Research on affective visualization design has shown that color is an especially powerful feature for influencing the emotional connotation of visualizations. Associations between colors and emotions are largely driven by lightness (e.g., lighter colors are associated with positive emotions, whereas darker colors are associated with negative emotions). Designing visualizations to have all light or all dark colors to convey particular emotions may work well for visualizations in which colors represent categories and spatial channels encode data values. However, this approach poses a problem for visualizations that use color to represent spatial patterns in data (e.g., colormap data visualizations) because lightness contrast is needed to reveal fine details in spatial structure. In this study, we found it is possible to design colormaps that have strong lightness contrast to support spatial vision while communicating clear affective connotation. We also found that affective connotation depended not only on the color scales used to construct the colormaps, but also the frequency with which colors appeared in the map, as determined by the underlying dataset (data-dependence hypothesis). These results emphasize the importance of data-aware design, which accounts for not only the design features that encode data (e.g., colors, shapes, textures), but also how those design features are instantiated in a visualization, given the properties of the data.

In primates, the OFF midget retinal ganglion cells (OFF mRGCs) have a high spatial density and small dendritic arbors. Their axons provide input to the parvocellular pathway mediating both colour vision and the highest-acuity spatial vision. This study aimed to understand the basis for their light responses by identifying the presynaptic amacrine and bipolar cells. Retinal tissue from an adult macaque was processed for serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, and a volume of images of the inner retina located 2mm temporal to the centre of the fovea was analysed. Ten OFF mRGCs and many of their presynaptic cells were reconstructed. Both midget and diffuse types of bipolar cells provided excitatory, glutamatergic input. Axons and long dendrites of wide-field amacrine cells made synapses, and we propose that these mediate tonic, GABAergic inhibition. Narrow-field amacrine cells also made synapses onto the OFF mRGCs, and we propose that most of them are glycinergic, inhibitory synapses. One presynaptic narrow-field amacrine cell was the knotty bistratified type 1 (KB1), which contains immunoreactive glycine and vesicular glutamate transporter 3. We propose that they enlarge the receptive field centers of OFF mRGCs via direct, excitatory synapses. The KB1 cell studied most extensively was presynaptic to some of the same types of amacrine cells that made inhibitory synapses onto OFF mRGCs. We propose that the knotty bistratifed type 1cells release glycine at those synapses and disinhibit responses of OFF mRGCs. KEY POINTS: In primates, OFF midget ganglion cells have the highest spatial density of any projection neurons, and they mediate high acuity vision. Ten of these cells and the neurons providing their inputs were reconstructed from a volume of serial ultrathin sections taken 2mm temporal to the centre of the macaque fovea. They received the majority of their inputs from amacrine cells, local circuit neurons that are typically inhibitory. One of the presynaptic amacrine cells resembled those containing vesicular glutamate transporter 3, and we propose that they provide excitatory input that enlarges the receptive field centers of OFF midget ganglion cells. They also receive excitatory input from both midget and diffuse bipolar cells. The results provide an explanation for some apparent contradictions between anatomical and physiological studies and are potentially important for understanding the etiology of retinal diseases.

BackgroundThe aging population in Europe has led to an expected increase in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Neurologists are demanding customized tools to better address this growing challenge. Currently, there is no comprehensive toolbox for evaluating visual capacities linked to early detection of these disorders. BegiBrainTool aims to fill this gap by providing a computerized modular battery of visual tests designed to assess spatial and dynamic vision, as well as autonomic visual responses, making it a valuable tool for clinical and research applications.MethodBegiBrainTool consists of three interactive modules, all implemented in PsychoPy (Peirce et al., 2019). The first module, focused on spatial vision, evaluates elementary and semantic visual processing by employing stimuli that vary in spatial frequency, contrast or luminosity, and color thresholds. The second module examines dynamic vision and eye‐tracking performance through tasks that include moving stimuli, visual search paradigms, and flicker fusion threshold tests. This module is enhanced with integrated eye‐tracking, which enables precise measurement of gaze behavior and pupilometry. Finally, the autonomic response module measures unconscious reactions to elemental and emotional visual stimuli, utilizing metrics such as pupillary response, heart rate variability, and galvanic skin response.The modular structure of BegiBrainTool ensures that the tests are user‐friendly and customizable, facilitating adaptability to diverse clinical and research settings.ResultThis project is currently ongoing. Preliminary efforts focus on validating the toolbox components and establishing robust protocols for data collection. Anticipated outcomes include a validated open‐source tool ready for clinical deployment.ConclusionBegiBrainTool introduces a novel and interdisciplinary approach to visual assessment for neurodegenerative disorders. Using modular, computerized tools and advanced biometrics, it offers a powerful platform for patient monitoring and longitudinal analysis. BegiBrainTool has the potential to support neurologists in managing the increasing wave of neurodegenerative cases, while simultaneously contributing to research on the visual and autonomic markers of Alzheimer's disease.

ABSTRACT Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) classification is critical for environmental monitoring and sustainable resource management, but faces challenges in accurately capturing complex spatial-spectral features and long-range dependencies in remote sensing imagery. To address this, we introduce a Hybrid Wide Residual Network-Dual Spatial Positional Embedding Vision Transformer (WRN-DSPViT) framework enhanced with Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) blocks and dual spatial positional embeddings. This model integrates a Wide Residual Network (WRN) for local spatial feature extraction and a Vision Transformer (ViT) with novel dual spatial encoding to capture global context via multi-head self-attention, where SE blocks dynamically recalibrate channel-wise features. Attention pooling is employed to fuse spatial features, allowing for adaptive weighting of important regions in the image, further enhancing classification accuracy. For multimodal hyperspectral-LiDAR data (Houston 2013), we extend this framework with parallel WRN-SE streams and cross-modal transformers, preserving spatial relationships through dual encodings. Evaluated on three benchmarks—EuroSAT (Multispectral), Houston 2013 (hyperspectral-LiDAR), and DeepGlobe (road extraction) —the hybrid WRN-DSPViT achieves state-of-the-art performance: 98.80% accuracy on EuroSAT (3.26 M parameters, 201.68 MFLOPS), 91.24% overall accuracy and 92.18% average accuracy on Houston 2013, and 0.802 F1-score/0.660 IoU on DeepGlobe.

Urban forestation has become a key policy tool for addressing contemporary environmental, climatic, and social challenges. In Italy—particularly in Rome—recent climate mitigation and environmental improvement initiatives have promoted afforestation through predominantly quantitative approaches. Yet, increasing tree numbers alone is insufficient to enhance urban environmental quality or create more livable and resilient cities. An effective strategy requires a spatial and cultural vision that integrates vegetation with urban form and everyday collective life. This paper frames urban afforestation as a strategic instrument of territorial transformation, landscape design, and social regeneration. It critically examines afforestation policies implemented in Rome and the Lazio Region and compares them with international experiences in Medellín, Philadelphia, and Milan. The study highlights current program weaknesses and emphasizes the need for integrated planning and design frameworks capable of generating qualitative improvements in urban space alongside quantitative gains. The Serenissima Park case study illustrates how afforestation can function as a “green infrastructure architecture,” connecting ecological systems, urban fabrics, and communities, and supporting climate adaptation, sustainable mobility, and social inclusion.

SUMMARYA common assumption is that contextual integration in the primary visual cortex (V1) is spatially uniform. However, perceptual phenomena such as visual crowding reveal non-uniform interactions, with flankers at specific geometries exerting stronger effects. To resolve this discrepancy, we investigated how flanker geometry impacted the representation of a target stimulus in the laminar microcircuits of V1. Our study indicates that flanker location differentially impairs stimulus representation in excitatory neurons in the superficial and input layers of V1 through tuned suppression and untuned facilitation of orientation responses. Mechanistically, this effect can be explained by asymmetrical spatial kernels in a normalization model of cortical activity. Strikingly, these non-uniform modulations of neural representation mirror perceptual anisotropies. These results demonstrate that the non-uniform spatial integration of information in the earliest stages of cortical processing places a fundamental limit on spatial vision.

Topographic maps early in visual processing preserve the spatial relations of visual stimuli but the metric relationships between these visual directions is not directly accessible. To investigate the magnocellular pathway's role in metric spatial vision, we employed an adaptation paradigm. Exposure to a 60Hz flickering disc array (subjectively invisible) induced a systematic compression in the perceived distance between subsequently presented dot pairs. This compression was strongest when adaptation preferentially modulated low spatial frequency channels, consistent with the properties of transient channels tuned to low spatial and high temporal frequencies. Crucially, this compression was attenuated when the adaptor consisted of two cyan lattices rotating on a magenta background near isoluminance, as confirmed by a global motion direction discrimination task. The same pattern emerged when test dots were isoluminant with the background, ruling out test-adaptor similarity as a critical factor. Finally, an isoluminant red-green adaptor flickering on a yellow background induced compression at 3Hz, but not at 60Hz. This dissociation aligns with the known properties of magnocellular neurons, which are insesitive to high temporal frequency isoluminant red-green modulation, but can respond to slow isoluminant red-green modulations. These findings reveal a novel role of the magnocellular pathway in metric spatial vision.

The appreciation of parallel visual pathways from retina to cortex in mammalian vision has greatly advanced our understanding of sensory processing. While these anatomical pathways are well-characterized, their specific functional roles remain incompletely understood, particularly in terms of parsing natural scenes. Here, we start with a re-evaluation of the functional contributions of parallel X and Y pathways in the cat, emphasizing the underappreciated role of Y cells in spatial vision. Contrary to the traditional view that prioritizes the importance of high acuity for visual function and thus the role of X cells, because they support high acuity vision, we argue that lower spatial frequencies are more important for visual function. For instance, these lower frequencies dominate natural visual scenes, and Y cells are much more responsive to these than X cells are. We provide further anatomical and behavioral evidence that the Y pathway plays the dominant role in basic spatial vision, particularly during active vision. These findings challenge the adequacy of visual acuity and the X pathway as a proxy for visual function and underscore the need to consider functioning in response to natural scenes in models of visual processing. Implications for primate and rodent vision are discussed, including the need for comparative and integrative research and the importance of understanding similarities and differences across species.

Macular pigments (MP), composed of lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin, accumulate in the human fovea and selectively absorb short-wavelength light, potentially influencing spatial vision. This study investigated the relationship between macular pigment optical density (MPOD) and fine spatial resolution across different wavelengths under conditions subject to light scatter. Sixty healthy participants (mean age=22.7 years) underwent MPOD assessment using heterochromatic flicker photometry and performed a two-point resolution task utilizing a custom optical system with monochromatic and broadband light sources. A significant (p<0.05) negative correlation was found between MPOD and two-point resolution thresholds at shorter wavelengths but not at longer wavelengths suggesting MP enhances spatial resolution specifically for absorbed wavelengths. Quartile analysis, for example, demonstrated that individuals with higher MPOD exhibited 31-38% better spatial resolution at 420-540nm compared to those with lower MPOD. These findings support the hypothesis that MP selectively mitigates light scatter effects and improves visual function even in low-light conditions.

Amblyopia is a common disorder of spatial vision and is frequently associated with the presence of anisometropia, strabismus, or both, during visual development. For highly visible stimuli, subjects with strabismic amblyopia often report marked spatial distortions, but the neural basis of this supra-threshold deficit is not well understood. Here, we used a combination of behavioural measurements and visual field mapping with high spatial-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 7T to assess perceptual distortions in 12 participants with strabismic amblyopia and 9 control subjects. We measured both behavioural and cortical visual field maps monocularly through each eye. Although amblyopic subjects showed increased perceptual distortions, the layout of V1 maps, as measured through the eccentricity and size of population receptive fields, was largely unaltered compared to controls, with no discernible difference in cortical magnification between groups. This suggests that disruptions to V1 retinotopy do not explain the perceptual distortions experienced by amblyopes.

As an advocate of the Black Consciousness Movement, South African playwright Maishe Maponya employs dramatic space as an analytical framework in his play Umongikazi/The Nurse to reveal the oppressive social realities faced by marginalised groups under the white-dominated power structure. This article, grounded in Edward Soja’s theory of Thirdspace, systematically analyses the spatial organisation patterns within the play’s narrative structure and their correlations with the identity construction strategies of the characters. Within the distorted spatial hierarchy shaped by systemic racism, Black individuals endure dual oppression in both the physical and mental dimensions. The characters in the play resist the oppressive spatial order through bodily practice strategies, specifically demonstrated by the reoccupation and functional reconstruction of spaces previously restricted to them, thereby deconstructing the established spatial configuration of power. At the mental level, the characters transcend the limitations of real-world spaces through imaginative construction, creating an ideal spatial vision of racial equality. This cognitive process provides spiritual support for their identity struggles. The above-mentioned practices ultimately give rise to a “Thirdspace” with transformative potential. This space breaks the oppressor-oppressed binary and challenges institutionalised power’s spatial discipline, and creates possibilities for the reconstruction of Black subjectivity.

The distribution of long (L)-, middle (M)-, and short (S)-wavelength sensitive cones in the retina determines how different frequencies of incident light are sampled across space and has been hypothesized to influence spatial and color vision. We examined how the detection and color naming of small, short-duration increment stimuli (λ = 543 or 680 nm) depend on the local spectral topography of the cone mosaic. Stimuli were corrected for optical aberrations by an adaptive optics system and targeted to locations in the parafovea where cone spectral types were known. We found that sensitivity to 680-nm light, normalized by sensitivity to 543-nm light, grew with the proportion of L cones at the stimulated locus, although intra- and intersubject variability was considerable. A similar trend was derived from a simple model of the achromatic (L+M) pathway, suggesting that small spot detection mainly relies on a non-opponent mechanism. Most stimuli were categorized as achromatic, with red and green responses becoming more common as stimulus intensity increased and as the local proportion of L and M cones became more balanced. The proximity of S cones to the stimulated region did not influence the likelihood of eliciting a chromatic percept. Our detection data confirm earlier reports that small spot psychophysics can reveal information about local cone topography, and our color naming findings suggest that chromatic sensitivity may improve when the L/M ratio approaches unity.

The article presents a theoretical and practical analysis of the methodology of short-term sketches as an effective pedagogical tool in the professional training of future artists. The importance of sketch practice for the development of basic artistic skills, the formation of students' observation, imaginative thinking, the ability to quickly and summarily capture a natural motif, as well as mastering technical techniques in limited time conditions is revealed. Particular attention is paid to the structure of short-term sketches, which includes preparatory, practical and analytical stages. At the preparatory stage, the purpose of the task is determined, the nature is analysed, the compositional centre is chosen, the general creative idea and colouristic solution of the future work are thought out. During the practical execution, attention is focused on conveying the basic tonal and colour relationships, building a three-dimensional structure and capturing the general mood of the motif. At the final stage, a collective analysis of the completed sketches is carried out, identifying the main mistakes and successful artistic solutions, analysing different approaches to composition and colour rendering. The article emphasises the importance of collective analysis of the results as a means of developing critical thinking, forming a culture of artistic perception, professional analysis of works of art and the ability to reasonably evaluate one's own and others' works. It is noted that the sketch practice provides not only technical training, but also contributes to the formation of students' individual artistic language, the development of their aesthetic culture, spatial vision and the ability to find the characteristic features of a natural motif. The proposed methodological recommendations can be used in the educational practice of institutions of professional art education, as well as useful for teachers and students in organising and conducting classes in plein air and sketch painting

The distribution of long (L), middle (M), and short (S) wavelength sensitive cones in the retina determines how different frequencies of incident light are sampled across space and has been hypothesized to influence spatial and color vision. We examined how the detection and color naming of small, short-duration increment stimuli (λ = 543 or 680 nm) depend on the local spectral topography of the cone mosaic. Stimuli were corrected for optical aberrations by an adaptive optics system and targeted to locations in the parafovea where cone spectral types were known. We found that sensitivity to 680 nm light, normalized by sensitivity to 543 nm light, grew with the proportion of L cones at the stimulated locus, though intra- and intersubject variability was considerable. A similar trend was derived from a simple model of the achromatic (L+M) pathway suggesting that small spot detection mainly relies on a non-opponent mechanism. Most stimuli were called achromatic, with red and green responses becoming more common as stimulus intensity increased and as the local L/M ratio became more symmetric. The proximity of S cones to the stimulated region did not influence the likelihood of eliciting a chromatic percept. Our detection data confirm earlier reports that small spot psychophysics can reveal information about local cone topography, and our color naming findings suggest that chromatic sensitivity may improve when the L/M ratio approaches unity.

The mechanisms by which the visual system extracts key features (i.e., edges) from the visual input remain not fully understood. As reflected in the term spatial vision, pattern vision is traditionally assumed to operate on stationary visual inputs. However, our eyes are never truly still. Involuntary eye movements, specifically ocular drift, continuously alter the visual input during fixations and redistribute its power, emphasizing high spatial frequency contents. In this study, we examine the role of ocular drift on edge sensitivity in noise. We show that drift-induced shifts in stimulus power lead to better predictions of the empirical data, consistent with the human contrast sensitivity function. We then incorporate drift into a mechanistic model of spatial vision to test whether this further improves model predictions. Surprisingly, the original spatial model outperforms the drift-enhanced version. It does so in an interesting way: It artificially compensates for the absence of drift by redistributing the activity across its spatial frequency channels in later processing stages, effectively mimicking the effect of a dynamic input without explicitly modeling it. By contrast, a simpler model with a single spatial frequency channel benefits from drift but performs poorly when drift is removed. These findings suggest that standard model architectures inherently favor a stationary view of visual processing, which could result in self-confirming theories. Incorporating the dynamic nature of the visual input may offer a more accurate model of how the brain processes key features of natural scenes. However, doing so requires a critical reassessment of long-standing frameworks in visual neuroscience.