Detailed descriptions of routes traveled, but not map‐like knowledge, correlates with tests of hippocampal function in older adults

Hirshhorn, Marnie; Newman, Leorra; Moscovitch, Morris

doi:10.1002/hipo.20871

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…While the current analysis did not distinguish systematically between these different types of details, a previous analysis performed on this dataset revealed that TLE patients were grossly impaired at recollecting perceptual details (St-Laurent et al, 2009). We suspect that the deficit in temporally indefinite details we are observing is at least partially accounted for by a loss of perceptual details, which would be consistent with evidence that a loss of hippocampal function impairs the retrieval of rich visuospatial information (Hassabis et al, 2007;Hirshhorn et al, 2009).…”

Section: The Mtl Temporal Specificity and Vividnesssupporting

confidence: 78%

The temporal unraveling of autobiographical memory narratives in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions

et al. 2011

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Medial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), a condition known to affect the integrity and function of medial temporal lobe structures such as the hippocampus, has been shown to disrupt memory for real-life episodes. Here, patients with unilateral TLE, patients who received a unilateral temporal lobe resection to cure TLE, and healthy controls produced free narratives of autobiographical memories (AMs). To assess temporal resolution, narratives were segmented into bits of information, or details, which were classified according to how precisely they could be located within the time course of the AM. Categories included details corresponding to the entire AM, to parts or subevents within the AM, and to actions taking place within seconds to minutes. The number of details per category was tallied and compared between patients and controls. Temporal order was assessed by determining the correct (internally consistent) chronological order of the sequence of events within the narrative. Results indicate that while patients' memory for the parts or subevents of personal episodes was intact, as was their temporal order, their memory for the minute-by-minute unraveling of the episode was impaired. We believe this loss of temporally specific details may contribute to the reduced vividness of AM recollection in TLE patients. Our findings provide further evidence that patients with hippocampal damage retrieve skeletal AMs for which the gist of the memory is maintained, but the specific details are lost.

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Section: The Mtl Temporal Specificity and Vividnesssupporting

confidence: 78%

The temporal unraveling of autobiographical memory narratives in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions

et al. 2011

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“…Even more striking was the finding that the majority of the older participants reported that their re-experiencing of mentally navigating the route lacked vividness and richness of perceptual detail. Hirshhorn et al (2011) reported a similar paucity of re-experiencing well-known Toronto routes in older adults who otherwise appeared to make accurate proximity judgments based on the same Toronto environment. Importantly, only re-experiencing of routes was correlated with autobiographical episodic memory and other neuropsychological tests of hippocampal function.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Aging has also been associated with spatial disorientation in recently encountered environments in both animals and humans in relation to hippocampal volume loss (e.g., Driscoll et al, 2006; Moffat, 2009). A study of older adults suggests that this impairment extends to the re-experiencing of familiar routes from an environment that was traveled extensively in the past, which is correlated with neuropsychological tests of hippocampal function and autobiographical episodic memory (Hirshhorn et al, 2011). Nevertheless, the ability to represent the spatial distance between landmarks located in the same environment does not appear to be affected, though comparison of the older adults' remote spatial memory performance was not made with a younger group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote spatial memory in aging: all is not lost

Rosenbaum¹,

Winocur²,

Binns³

et al. 2012

Front. Ag. Neurosci.

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The ability to acquire and retain spatial memories in order to navigate in new environments is known to decline with age, but little is known about the effect of aging on representations of environments learned long ago, in the remote past. To investigate the status of remote spatial memory in old age, we tested healthy young and older adults on a variety of mental navigation tests based on a large-scale city environment that was very familiar to participants but rarely visited by the older adults in recent years. We show that whereas performance on a route learning test of new spatial learning was significantly worse in older than younger adults, performance was comparable or better in the older adults on mental navigation tests based on a well-known environment learned long ago. An exception was in the older adults' ability to vividly re-experience the well-known environment, and recognize and represent the visual details contained within it. The results are seen as analogous to the pattern of better semantic than episodic memory that has been found to accompany healthy aging.

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“…In Experiment 1, the participants with DS actually saw the landmarks twice as often before recall (it took more trials for them to learn the route) and still remembered only half as many of the landmarks. This may also be related to hippocampal function because the hippocampus is required to produce successful verbal episodic memories (e.g., Hirshhorn et al, 2011 ; Nadel and Peterson, 2013 ). In Experiment 2, we assessed whether having participants focus on landmarks might reduce the difficulties in route-learning experienced by persons with DS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of differences in wayfinding performance and correlations among abilities between persons with and without Down syndrome and typically developing children

et al. 2014

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Down syndrome (DS) impacts several brain regions including the hippocampus and surrounding structures that have responsibility for important aspects of navigation and wayfinding. Hence it is reasonable to expect that DS may result in a reduced ability to engage in these skills. Two experiments are reported that evaluated route-learning of youth with DS, youth with intellectual disability (ID) and not DS, and typically developing (TD) children matched on mental age (MA). In both experiments, participants learned routes with eight choice point presented via computer. Several objects were placed along the route that could be used as landmarks. Participants navigated the route once with turn indicators pointing the way and then retraced the route without them. In Experiment 1 we found that the TD children and ID participants performed very similarly. They learned the route in the same number of attempts, committed the same number of errors while learning the route, and recalled approximately the same number of landmarks. The participants with DS performed significantly worse on both measures of navigation (attempts and errors) and also recalled significantly fewer landmarks. In Experiment 2, we attempted to reduce TD and ID vs DS differences by focusing participants’ attention on the landmarks. Half of the participants in each group were instructed to identify the landmarks as they passed them the first time. The participants with DS again committed more errors than the participants in the ID and TD groups in the navigation task. In addition, they recalled fewer landmarks. While landmark identification improved landmark memory for both groups, it did not have a significant impact on navigation. Participants with DS still performed more poorly than did the TD and ID participants. Of additional interest, we observed that the performance of persons with DS correlated with different ability measures than did the performance of the other groups. The results the two experiments point to a problem in navigation for persons with DS that exceeds expectations based solely on intellectual level.

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Detailed descriptions of routes traveled, but not map‐like knowledge, correlates with tests of hippocampal function in older adults

Cited by 23 publications

References 20 publications

The temporal unraveling of autobiographical memory narratives in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions

The temporal unraveling of autobiographical memory narratives in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions

Remote spatial memory in aging: all is not lost

Patterns of differences in wayfinding performance and correlations among abilities between persons with and without Down syndrome and typically developing children

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