Research at the Edge of the Map

We study how the brain maps space, how cognition and embodied movement keep those maps usable, and how people reorient when conditions change.

What makes agency possible when familiar structure disappears?

We use extended reality technologies to alter geometry, physical laws, and sensorimotor contingencies under controlled conditions. These changes reveal how spatial representations, predictive models, and embodied regulation interact to sustain adaptive action.

ORIENT

What world am I in?

How does the brain establish context, position, reference frames, and what matters now?

ADAPT

What has changed in my model?

How quickly can cognition, perception, and the body update when familiar assumptions fail?

ACT

What can I do now?

Can a person preserve meaningful agency when the environment is uncertain, nonlinear, unfamiliar, or changing faster than expected?

Research Programs

01 Neural Cartography How does the brain map a world that is not Euclidean? Memory, pathfinding, spatial representation, and cognitive maps across toroidal, spherical, hyperbolic, and other environments. Open 02 Altered Physics When gravity changes, does thought change with it? Agency, prediction, problem-solving, and adaptation under novel physical rules. Open 03 Agency Beyond Euclid How do you act when global spatial rules stop being intuitive? Path integration and action when local bodily cues and global structure no longer align. Open 04 Embodied Locomotion What makes unfamiliar movement become embodied? Hands-free locomotion, embodiment, cybersickness, and adaptive movement. Open 05 Neurocognitive Navigation What does it mean to begin losing the map? Spatial navigation and path integration in relation to aging, Alzheimer's disease, and rehabilitation. Open 06 Experimental Systems How do we build realities precise enough to test these questions? The immersive, computational, behavioral, and physiological infrastructure behind ibiLab research. Open

Current questions, worlds under construction, open collaborations.

What the lab is building right now, and where it is looking for people to build with.

Go Inside ibiLab

Thesis

Adaptive agency depends on the capacity to remap without losing the ability to act.

Mapping Adaptive Agency

Experimental worlds for studying cognition beyond familiar constraints.

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