The topic of the Horizons of Knowledge Lecture will be “Specialization and breakdown of spatial representations: Mind, brain and development.”

“Our experience of the spatial world is a unitary one—we perceive objects and layouts, we remember them and act on them, and we can even talk about them with ease,” Landau wrote in a synopsis of her presentation. “Despite this impression of seamlessness, spatial representations in human adults appear to be specialized in domain-dependent manner, engaging different properties and computational mechanisms for different functions. In this talk, I will present evidence that this domain-specific specialization emerges early in development and is reflected in patterns of breakdown that occur under genetic defect.

“I will offer evidence from Williams syndrome—a rare genetic syndrome that gives rise to an unusual profile of severely impaired spatial representation together with spared language.”