Spatial navigation in young versus older adults

Ivana Gazova; Jan Laczó; Eva Rubinova; Ivana Mokrisova; Eva Hyncicova; Ross Andel; Martin Vyhnalek; Katerina Sheardova; Elizabeth J. Coulson; Jakub Hort

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2013.00094

Spatial navigation in young versus older adults

Ivana Gazova
, Jan Laczó^*
, Eva Rubinova
, Ivana Mokrisova
, Eva Hyncicova
, Ross Andel
, Martin Vyhnalek
, Katerina Sheardova
, Elizabeth J. Coulson
, Jakub Hort

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

Charles University
Masaryk University
University of South Florida
University of Queensland

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

134 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Older age is associated with changes in the brain, including the medial temporal lobe, which may result in mild spatial navigation deficits, especially in allocentric navigation. The aim of the study was to characterize the profile of real-space allocentric (world-centered, hippocampus-dependent) and egocentric (body-centered, parietal lobe dependent) navigation and learning in young vs. older adults, and to assess a possible influence of gender. We recruited healthy participants without cognitive deficits on standard neuropsychological testing, white matter lesions or pronounced hippocampal atrophy: 24 young participants (18-26 years old) and 44 older participants stratified as participants 60-70 years old (n = 24) and participants 71-84 years old (n = 20). All underwent spatial navigation testing in the real-space human analog of the Morris Water Maze, which has the advantage of assessing separately allocentric and egocentric navigation and learning. Of the eight consecutive trials, trials 2-8 were used to reduce bias by a rebound effect (more dramatic changes in performance between trials 1 and 2 relative to subsequent trials). The participants who were 71-84 years old (p < 0.001), but not those 60-70 years old, showed deficits in allocentric navigation compared to the young participants. There were no differences in egocentric navigation. All three groups showed spatial learning effect (p' s = 0.01). There were no gender differences in spatial navigation and learning. Linear regression limited to older participants showed linear (ß = 0.30, p = 0.045) and quadratic (ß = 0.30, p = 0.046) effect of age on allocentric navigation. There was no effect of age on egocentric navigation. These results demonstrate that navigation deficits in older age may be limited to allocentric navigation, whereas egocentric navigation and learning may remain preserved. This specific pattern of spatial navigation impairment may help differentiate normal aging from prodromal Alzheimer's disease.

Original language	English
Article number	94
Number of pages	8
Journal	Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
Volume	5
Early online date	19 Dec 2013
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2013.00094
Publication status	Published - 19 Dec 2013

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Aging
Allocentric navigation
Alzheimer's disease
Egocentric navigation
Gender
Hippocampus
Spatial learning
Spatial navigation

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Gazova_etal_FIN_Spatial_Navigation_In_VoR
Copyright © 2013 Gazova, Laczó, Rubinova, Mokrisova, Hyncicova, Andel, Vyhnalek, Sheardova, Coulson and Hort. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Final published version, 719 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Spatial navigation in young versus older adults",

abstract = "Older age is associated with changes in the brain, including the medial temporal lobe, which may result in mild spatial navigation deficits, especially in allocentric navigation. The aim of the study was to characterize the profile of real-space allocentric (world-centered, hippocampus-dependent) and egocentric (body-centered, parietal lobe dependent) navigation and learning in young vs. older adults, and to assess a possible influence of gender. We recruited healthy participants without cognitive deficits on standard neuropsychological testing, white matter lesions or pronounced hippocampal atrophy: 24 young participants (18-26 years old) and 44 older participants stratified as participants 60-70 years old (n = 24) and participants 71-84 years old (n = 20). All underwent spatial navigation testing in the real-space human analog of the Morris Water Maze, which has the advantage of assessing separately allocentric and egocentric navigation and learning. Of the eight consecutive trials, trials 2-8 were used to reduce bias by a rebound effect (more dramatic changes in performance between trials 1 and 2 relative to subsequent trials). The participants who were 71-84 years old (p < 0.001), but not those 60-70 years old, showed deficits in allocentric navigation compared to the young participants. There were no differences in egocentric navigation. All three groups showed spatial learning effect (p' s = 0.01). There were no gender differences in spatial navigation and learning. Linear regression limited to older participants showed linear ({\ss} = 0.30, p = 0.045) and quadratic ({\ss} = 0.30, p = 0.046) effect of age on allocentric navigation. There was no effect of age on egocentric navigation. These results demonstrate that navigation deficits in older age may be limited to allocentric navigation, whereas egocentric navigation and learning may remain preserved. This specific pattern of spatial navigation impairment may help differentiate normal aging from prodromal Alzheimer's disease.",

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AU - Gazova, Ivana

AU - Laczó, Jan

AU - Rubinova, Eva

AU - Mokrisova, Ivana

AU - Hyncicova, Eva

AU - Andel, Ross

AU - Vyhnalek, Martin

AU - Sheardova, Katerina

AU - Coulson, Elizabeth J.

AU - Hort, Jakub

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AB - Older age is associated with changes in the brain, including the medial temporal lobe, which may result in mild spatial navigation deficits, especially in allocentric navigation. The aim of the study was to characterize the profile of real-space allocentric (world-centered, hippocampus-dependent) and egocentric (body-centered, parietal lobe dependent) navigation and learning in young vs. older adults, and to assess a possible influence of gender. We recruited healthy participants without cognitive deficits on standard neuropsychological testing, white matter lesions or pronounced hippocampal atrophy: 24 young participants (18-26 years old) and 44 older participants stratified as participants 60-70 years old (n = 24) and participants 71-84 years old (n = 20). All underwent spatial navigation testing in the real-space human analog of the Morris Water Maze, which has the advantage of assessing separately allocentric and egocentric navigation and learning. Of the eight consecutive trials, trials 2-8 were used to reduce bias by a rebound effect (more dramatic changes in performance between trials 1 and 2 relative to subsequent trials). The participants who were 71-84 years old (p < 0.001), but not those 60-70 years old, showed deficits in allocentric navigation compared to the young participants. There were no differences in egocentric navigation. All three groups showed spatial learning effect (p' s = 0.01). There were no gender differences in spatial navigation and learning. Linear regression limited to older participants showed linear (ß = 0.30, p = 0.045) and quadratic (ß = 0.30, p = 0.046) effect of age on allocentric navigation. There was no effect of age on egocentric navigation. These results demonstrate that navigation deficits in older age may be limited to allocentric navigation, whereas egocentric navigation and learning may remain preserved. This specific pattern of spatial navigation impairment may help differentiate normal aging from prodromal Alzheimer's disease.

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KW - Allocentric navigation

KW - Alzheimer's disease

KW - Egocentric navigation

KW - Gender

KW - Hippocampus

KW - Spatial learning

KW - Spatial navigation

U2 - 10.3389/fnagi.2013.00094

DO - 10.3389/fnagi.2013.00094

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84895826070

SN - 1663-4365

VL - 5

JO - Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

JF - Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

M1 - 94

ER -

Spatial navigation in young versus older adults

Abstract

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Keywords

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