Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, John Hume Building, North Campus, Maynooth, Co Kildare W23 F2H6, Ireland.
Department of Psychology and Health Research Center, University of Almeria, 04120 La Cañada, Almería, Spain.
Rev Neurosci. 2021 Apr 12;32(8):887-903. doi: 10.1515/revneuro-2020-0149. Print 2021 Dec 20.
The ability to accurately recall locations and navigate our environment relies on multiple cognitive mechanisms. The behavioural and neural correlates of spatial navigation have been repeatedly examined using different types of mazes and tasks with animals. Accurate performances of many of these tasks have proven to depend on specific circuits and brain structures and some have become the standard test of memory in many disease models. With the introduction of virtual reality (VR) to neuroscience research, VR tasks have become a popular method of examining human spatial memory and navigation. However, the types of VR tasks used to examine navigation across laboratories appears to greatly differ, from open arena mazes and virtual towns to driving simulators. Here, we examined over 200 VR navigation papers, and found that the most popular task used is the virtual analogue of the Morris water maze (VWM). Although we highlight the many advantages of using the VWM task, there are also some major difficulties related to the widespread use of this behavioural method. Despite the task's popularity, we demonstrate an inconsistency of use - particularly with respect to the environmental setup and procedures. Using different versions of the virtual water maze makes replication of findings and comparison of results across researchers very difficult. We suggest the need for protocol and design standardisation, alongside other difficulties that need to be addressed, if the virtual water maze is to become the 'gold standard' for human spatial research similar to its animal counterpart.
准确回忆地点和在环境中导航的能力依赖于多种认知机制。已经使用不同类型的迷宫和动物任务来反复检查空间导航的行为和神经相关性。这些任务中的许多准确表现都被证明取决于特定的回路和大脑结构，并且一些已经成为许多疾病模型中记忆的标准测试。随着虚拟现实 (VR) 引入神经科学研究，VR 任务已成为检查人类空间记忆和导航的一种流行方法。然而，用于跨实验室检查导航的 VR 任务类型似乎差异很大，从开放式竞技场迷宫和虚拟城镇到驾驶模拟器。在这里，我们检查了 200 多篇 VR 导航论文，发现使用最多的任务是 Morris 水迷宫的虚拟模拟 (VWM)。虽然我们强调了使用 VWM 任务的许多优点，但也存在与这种行为方法广泛使用相关的一些主要困难。尽管该任务很受欢迎，但我们发现其使用存在不一致性，特别是在环境设置和程序方面。使用不同版本的虚拟水迷宫使得研究人员之间的发现复制和结果比较非常困难。如果虚拟水迷宫要成为类似于其动物对应物的人类空间研究的“黄金标准”，我们建议需要进行协议和设计标准化，以及需要解决的其他困难。
