Meadmore Katie L, Dror Itiel E, Bucks Romola S
University of Southampton, UK.
Laterality. 2009 Jan;14(1):17-29. doi: 10.1080/13576500802022265.
Studies assessing spatial ability suggest right hemisphere specialisation for coordinate spatial processing and left hemisphere specialisation for categorical spatial processing. With regard to healthy ageing, spatial abilities may be affected selectively, with right hemisphere based coordinate processes being more vulnerable to age-related decline, but previous research has been inconsistent. In the present study, age and hemispheric specialisation of categorical and coordinate spatial abilities were explored. Testing 56 right-handed younger and older participants clearly showed a left hemisphere advantage for the categorical task and a right hemisphere advantage for the coordinate spatial task, for both age groups combined. Older adults were slower to process information and make a spatial judgement; nevertheless, the neural specialisation underlying spatial abilities seems to have remained consistent with age.
评估空间能力的研究表明，右半球专门负责坐标空间处理，左半球专门负责分类空间处理。关于健康老龄化，空间能力可能会受到选择性影响，基于右半球的坐标处理过程更容易受到与年龄相关的衰退影响，但先前的研究结果并不一致。在本研究中，我们探讨了分类和坐标空间能力的年龄差异及半球专门化情况。对56名右利手的年轻和年长参与者进行测试，结果清楚地表明，对于两个年龄组的综合情况而言，在分类任务中存在左半球优势，在坐标空间任务中存在右半球优势。老年人处理信息和做出空间判断的速度较慢；然而，空间能力背后的神经专门化似乎在年龄增长过程中保持一致。
