Spatial Navigation and Visuospatial Strategies in Typical and Atypical Aging

Abstract

Age-related spatial navigation decline is more pronounced in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia. We used a realistic-looking virtual navigation test suite to analyze different aspects of visuospatial processing in typical and atypical aging. A total of 219 older adults were recruited from the Czech Brain Aging Study cohort. Cognitively normal older adults (CN; n = 78), patients with amnestic MCI (n = 75), and those with mild AD dementia (n = 66) underwent three navigational tasks, cognitive assessment, and brain MRI. Route learning and wayfinding/perspective-taking tasks distinguished the groups as performance and learning declined and specific visuospatial strategies were less utilized with increasing cognitive impairment. Increased perspective shift and utilization of non-specific strategies were associated with worse task performance across the groups. Primacy and recency effects were observed across the groups in the route learning and the wayfinding/perspective-taking task, respectively. In addition, a primacy effect was present in the wayfinding/perspective-taking task in the CN older adults. More effective spatial navigation was associated with better memory and executive functions. The results demonstrate that a realistic and ecologically valid spatial navigation test suite can reveal different aspects of visuospatial processing in typical and atypical aging.

Prediction of Disorientation by Accelerometric and Gait Features in Young and Older Adults Navigating in a Virtually Enriched Environment

“…Moreover, it has also been associated with frontal executive function ( Arbuthnott and Frank, 2000 ). An association of executive functions and effective spatial navigation has been previously reported ( Wei et al, 2020 ; Laczo et al, 2021 ). Based on our results, we assume that higher executive functions play an important role in tasks requiring the use of effective wayfinding strategies.…”

Different Profiles of Spatial Navigation Deficits In Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarker-Positive Versus Biomarker-Negative Older Adults With Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

“…We used the Navigation Test Suite, which is described in detail in Wiener et al ( 2020 ) and Laczó et al ( 2021a ). Here we reiterate the description of the test for better comprehension.…”

“…The Test Suite has been designed to evaluate various spatial navigation abilities and consists of three tasks: a Route-repetition task assessing route learning (body-centered navigation), a Route-retracing task assessing wayfinding (world-centered navigation), and a Directional-approach task assessing perspective taking and wayfinding (Wiener et al, 2013 ; de Condappa and Wiener, 2016 ). Our previous studies showed that this test is well tolerated by CN (Wiener et al, 2020 ; Laczó et al, 2021a ) and cognitively impaired older adults (Laczó et al, 2021a ), and reliably detects spatial navigation deficits in individuals with aMCI and mild AD dementia (Laczó et al, 2021a ). However, the potential of this test to differentiate individuals with AD aMCI from those with non-AD aMCI, and associations of navigation performance with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of brain atrophy and AD biomarkers have not been investigated.…”

“…Older adults with amnestic MCI (aMCI) frequently show deficits in route learning and wayfinding, both in real space (DeIpolyi et al, 2007 ; Laczó et al, 2009 ) and in the virtual environment (Weniger et al, 2011 ; Laczó et al, 2012 ). Perspective taking deficits have also been found in individuals with aMCI (Marková et al, 2015 ; Laczó et al, 2021a ). However, these studies did not use biomarkers to confirm that AD was the cause of aMCI.…”

“…In this study, we built on our previous research using the Navigation Test Suite (Wiener et al, 2020 ; Laczó et al, 2021a ) and aimed to assess: (1) the differences in spatial navigation performance in the specific tasks tested between the participants with AD aMCI, non-AD aMCI, mild AD dementia and CN; (2) the associations of spatial navigation performance with MRI measures of atrophy in the specific MTL, cortical and subcortical regions and; (3) the associations of spatial navigation performance with AD biomarkers in CSF, and the role of regional brain atrophy in these associations.…”