Boccia Maddalena, Silveri Maria Caterina, Sabatini Umberto, Guariglia Cecilia, Nemmi Federico
Department of Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2016 Dec;31(8):618-630. doi: 10.1177/1533317516654757. Epub 2016 Jun 14.
Spatial navigation is one of the cognitive functions known to decline in both normal and pathological aging. In the present study, we aimed to assess the neural correlates of the decline of topographical memory in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Patients with aMCI and age-matched controls were engaged in an intensive learning paradigm, lasting for 5 days, during which they had to encode 1 path from an egocentric perspective and 1 path from an allocentric perspective. After the learning period, they were asked to retrieve each of these paths using an allocentric or egocentric frame of reference while undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. We found that patients with aMCI showed a specific deficit in storing new topographical memories from an allocentric perspective and retrieving stored information to perform the egocentric task. Imaging data suggest that this general decline is correlated with hypoactivation of the brain areas generally involved in spatial navigation.
空间导航是一种在正常衰老和病理性衰老中都会下降的认知功能。在本研究中，我们旨在评估遗忘型轻度认知障碍（aMCI）患者地形记忆衰退的神经关联。aMCI患者和年龄匹配的对照组参与了一个为期5天的强化学习范式，在此期间，他们必须从自我中心视角编码1条路径，并从他者中心视角编码1条路径。学习期结束后，他们在进行功能磁共振成像扫描时，被要求使用他者中心或自我中心参照系来检索这些路径中的每一条。我们发现，aMCI患者在从他者中心视角存储新的地形记忆以及检索存储信息以执行自我中心任务方面存在特定缺陷。成像数据表明，这种普遍衰退与通常参与空间导航的脑区激活不足有关。
