Bill Limpisathian

My research sits at the crossroads of cartographic visualization and neuroscience – examining the perception and cognition of cartographic representations using fMRI. In simpler terms, I spend my days thinking about how our brains see and decode representations of space (maps!) and how might map design moderate this process. I am a big proponent of transdisciplinary empirical research methods that expand the way we think about and study maps and cartographic design.

I bring with me industry experience from my time as a member of the highly dynamic Apple Maps Cartography team. Additionally, I have extensive professional map production experience from my time as a UO InfoGraphics Lab graduate cartographer – having worked on the Atlas of Yellowstone, 2nd ed., the Atlas of Wild Migrations, and other atlases, books and projects. I also was the principal cartographer for the Frank Lloyd Wright UNESCO World Heritage nomination project while a member of the Penn State Gould Center.

I aim to synthesize my deep expertise and broad experiences to build out a Cognitive Neuroscience of Cartography (NeuroCarto) research group within the UW Cart Lab. My immediate research seeks to explore the impact of aphantasia – the inability to visually imagine – and related cognitive conditions on geospatial and map reading abilities. Investigating aphantasia and its potential impact on map cognition offers valuable insights into the fundamental mental processes that underpin the amodal cognition of maps. Such direct insights would surpass the information that traditional metrics of task performance or participant surveys currently provide. A more precise examination of these functional differences helps us better understand possible modality-independent mental strategies employed for map reading.

Academic CV