Path integration selectively predicts midlife risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Newton, Coco; Pope, Marianna; Rua, Catarina; Henson, Richard; Ji, Zilong; Burgess, Neil; Rodgers, Christopher T.; Stangl, Matthias; Dounavi, Maria‐Eleni; Castegnaro, Andrea; Koychev, Ivan; Malhotra, Paresh; Wolbers, Thomas; Ritchie, Karen; Ritchie, Craig W.; O’Brien, John; Su, Li; Chan, Dennis

doi:10.1101/2023.01.31.526473

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Notably, the lack of a correlation between wayfinding inefficiency and the RAM measures in this small lab sample matches our recent report of an absence of correlation between these in an online sample of over 37,000 participants (West et al, 2023). The absence of a correlation of the PI measure and the other navigation tasks is notable in light of recent evidence that PI, rather than other spatial tests, might be particularly important for early detection of AD (Kunz et al, 2015; Bierbrauer et al, 2020; Newton et al, 2023).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

The relationship between object-based spatial ability and virtual navigation performance

Garg

Velasco

Patai

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Spatial navigation is a multi-faceted behaviour drawing on many different aspects of cognition. Visuospatial abilities, such as spatial working memory and mental rotation, in particular, may be key factors. A range of tests have been developed to assess visuospatial processing and memory, but how such tests relate to navigation ability remains unclear. This understanding is important to advance tests of navigation for disease monitoring in Alzheimer's Disease, where disorientation is an early symptom. Here, we report the use of an established mobile gaming app, Sea Hero Quest, as a measure of navigation ability. We used three separate tests of navigation embedded in the game: wayfinding, path integration and spatial memory in a radial arm maze. In the same participants, we also collected measures of mental rotation (Mental Rotation Test), visuospatial processing (Design Organization Test) and visuospatial working memory (Digital Corsi). We found few strong correlations across our measures. Being good at wayfinding in a virtual navigation test does not mean an individual will rate themself as a confident navigator, be good at path integration, or have a superior memory in a radial arm maze. However, those good at wayfinding tend to perform well on the three visuospatial tasks examined here, and to also use a landmark strategy in the radial maze task. These findings help clarify the inter-relationships between different abilities supporting visuospatial and navigation skills.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

The relationship between object-based spatial ability and virtual navigation performance

Garg

Velasco

Patai

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Notably, the lack of a correlation between wayfinding inefficiency and the RAM errors in this small lab sample matches our recent report of an absence of correlation between these in an online sample of over 37,000 participants [ 45 ]. The absence of a correlation of the PI measure and the other navigation tasks is notable in light of recent evidence that PI, rather than other spatial tests, might be particularly important for early detection of AD [ 67 – 69 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between object-based spatial ability and virtual navigation performance

Garg,

Velasco,

Patai

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Spatial navigation is a multi-faceted behaviour drawing on many different aspects of cognition. Visuospatial abilities, such as mental rotation and visuospatial working memory, in particular, may be key factors. A range of tests have been developed to assess visuospatial processing and memory, but how such tests relate to navigation ability remains unclear. This understanding is important to advance tests of navigation for disease monitoring in various disorders (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease) where spatial impairment is an early symptom. Here, we report the use of an established mobile gaming app, Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), as a measure of navigation ability in a sample of young, predominantly female university students (N = 78; 20; female = 74.3%; mean age = 20.33 years). We used three separate tests of navigation embedded in SHQ: wayfinding, path integration and spatial memory in a radial arm maze. In the same participants, we also collected measures of mental rotation (Mental Rotation Test), visuospatial processing (Design Organization Test) and visuospatial working memory (Digital Corsi). We found few strong correlations across our measures. Being good at wayfinding in a virtual navigation test does not mean an individual will also be good at path integration, have a superior memory in a radial arm maze, or rate themself as having a strong sense of direction. However, we observed that participants who were good in the wayfinding task of SHQ tended to perform well on the three visuospatial tasks examined here, and to also use a landmark strategy in the radial maze task. These findings help clarify the associations between different abilities involved in spatial navigation.

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“…Thus, rather than resulting from variation in path integration per se, differences between individuals could instead result from variation in the anchoring of grid representations underlying path integration. This could be important as a potential mechanism for deficits in spatial localisation associated with neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders ( Kunz et al, 2015 ; Newton et al, 2023 ; Noel et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Task-anchored grid cell firing is selectively associated with successful path integration-dependent behaviour

Clark

Nolan

2024

eLife

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Grid firing fields of neurons in the medial entorhinal cortex have been proposed as a neural substrate for spatial localisation and path integration. While there are strong theoretical arguments to support these roles, it has been challenging to directly test whether and when grid cells contribute to behaviours. Here, we investigate firing of grid cells during a task in which mice obtain rewards by recalling a location on a linear virtual track. We find that grid firing can either be anchored to the track, providing a code for position, or can instead encode distance travelled independent from the track position. Because engagement of these representations varied between and within sessions we were able to test whether positional grid firing predicts behaviour. We find that when a visual cue indicates the reward location, performance is similar regardless of whether grid cells encode position or distance. By contrast, in the absence of the visual cue, performance was substantially improved when grid cells encoded position compared to when they encoded distance. Our results suggest that positional anchoring of grid firing enhances performance of tasks that require path integration.

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Path integration selectively predicts midlife risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Cited by 12 publications

References 60 publications

The relationship between object-based spatial ability and virtual navigation performance

The relationship between object-based spatial ability and virtual navigation performance

The relationship between object-based spatial ability and virtual navigation performance

Task-anchored grid cell firing is selectively associated with successful path integration-dependent behaviour

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