Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Behav Brain Res. 2010 May 1;209(1):49-58. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.01.012. Epub 2010 Jan 18.
While existing evidence suggests that older adults have compromised spatial navigation abilities, the effects of age on specific aspects of navigational skill are less well specified. The current study examined age effects on spatial navigation abilities considering the multiple cognitive and neural factors that contribute to successful navigation. Young and older adults completed wayfinding and route learning tasks in a virtual environment and aspects of environmental knowledge were assessed. Prefrontal, caudate and hippocampal volumes were obtained in a subset of older adults. Age differences were observed in both wayfinding and route learning. For wayfinding, there were age effects in recalling landmarks, and recognizing environmental scenes. In the route learning condition, older adults evidenced difficulty with the location, temporal order and directional information of landmarks. In both conditions, there was evidence of age-related differences in the acquisition of configural knowledge. Wayfinding was associated with the hippocampus whereas route learning was associated with the caudate nucleus. These results provide indications of specific aspects of navigational learning that may contribute to age-related declines and potential neural substrates.
虽然现有证据表明老年人的空间导航能力受损，但年龄对导航技能特定方面的影响还不太明确。本研究考虑到有助于成功导航的多种认知和神经因素，考察了年龄对空间导航能力的影响。年轻和老年成年人在虚拟环境中完成寻路和路线学习任务，并评估了环境知识的各个方面。在一部分老年人中还获得了前额叶、尾状核和海马体的体积。在寻路和路线学习中都观察到了年龄差异。在寻路方面，老年人在回忆地标和识别环境场景方面存在年龄影响。在路线学习条件下，老年人在地标位置、时间顺序和方向信息方面存在困难。在两种情况下，都有证据表明在获得构形知识方面存在与年龄相关的差异。寻路与海马体有关，而路线学习与尾状核有关。这些结果提供了一些迹象表明，特定的导航学习方面可能导致与年龄相关的下降和潜在的神经基质。
