Silva Azul, Martínez María Cecilia
Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica "Dr. Bernardo Houssay"- CONICET (IFIBIO), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2023 Jan 12;16:1082158. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1082158. eCollection 2022.
Whenever we navigate through different contexts, we build a cognitive map: an internal representation of the territory. Spatial navigation is a complex skill that involves multiple types of information processing and integration. Place cells and grid cells, collectively with other hippocampal and medial entorhinal cortex neurons (MEC), form a neural network whose activity is critical for the representation of self-position and orientation along with spatial memory retrieval. Furthermore, this activity generates new representations adapting to changes in the environment. Though there is a normal decline in spatial memory related to aging, this is dramatically increased in pathological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is a multi-factorial neurodegenerative disorder affecting mainly the hippocampus-entorhinal cortex (HP-EC) circuit. Consequently, the initial stages of the disease have disorientation and wandering behavior as two of its hallmarks. Recent electrophysiological studies have linked spatial memory deficits to difficulties in spatial information encoding. Here we will discuss map impairment and remapping disruption in the HP-EC network, as a possible circuit mechanism involved in the spatial memory and navigation deficits observed in AD, pointing out the benefits of virtual reality as a tool for early diagnosis and rehabilitation.
每当我们在不同情境中导航时，我们都会构建一幅认知地图：对该区域的内部表征。空间导航是一项复杂的技能，涉及多种类型的信息处理与整合。位置细胞和网格细胞与其他海马体及内嗅皮质神经元（MEC）共同构成一个神经网络，其活动对于自我位置和方向的表征以及空间记忆检索至关重要。此外，这种活动会生成适应环境变化的新表征。虽然与衰老相关的空间记忆会出现正常衰退，但在诸如阿尔茨海默病（AD）等病理状况下，这种衰退会显著加剧。AD是一种多因素神经退行性疾病，主要影响海马体 - 内嗅皮质（HP - EC）回路。因此，该疾病的初始阶段具有迷失方向和徘徊行为这两个特征。最近的电生理研究已将空间记忆缺陷与空间信息编码困难联系起来。在此，我们将讨论HP - EC网络中的地图损伤和重映射破坏，这可能是AD中观察到的空间记忆和导航缺陷所涉及的一种回路机制，同时指出虚拟现实作为早期诊断和康复工具的益处。
