Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy.
Faculty of Psychology, eCampus University, Novedrate, Italy.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2024;99(3):899-910. doi: 10.3233/JAD-240122.
Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) syndrome often report navigation difficulties, accompanied by impairments in egocentric and allocentric spatial memory. However, studies have shown that both bodily (e.g., motor commands, proprioception, vestibular information) and visual-cognitive (e.g., maps, directional arrows, attentional markers) cues can support spatial memory in MCI.
We aimed to assess navigation cues for innovative spatial training in aging.
Fifteen MCI patients were recruited for this study. Their egocentric and allocentric memory recall performances were tested through a navigation task with five different virtual reality (VR) assistive encoding navigation procedures (bodily, vision only, interactive allocentric map, reduced executive load, free navigation without cues). Bodily condition consisted of an immersive VR setup to engage self-motion cues, vision only condition consisted of passive navigation without interaction, in the interactive allocentric map condition patients could use a bird-view map, in the reduced executive load condition directional cues and attentional markers were employed, and during free navigation no aid was implemented.
Bodily condition improved spatial memory compared to vision only and free navigation without cues. In addition, the interactive allocentric map was superior to the free navigation without cues. Surprisingly, the reduced executive load was comparable to vison only condition. Moreover, a detrimental impact of free navigation was observed on allocentric memory across testing trials.
These findings challenge the notion of an amodal representation of space in aging, suggesting that spatial maps can be influenced by the modality in which the environment was originally encoded.
轻度认知障碍 (MCI) 综合征个体常报告导航困难，伴有自我中心和客体中心空间记忆损伤。然而，研究表明，身体（例如，运动指令、本体感觉、前庭信息）和视觉认知（例如，地图、方向箭头、注意力标记）线索都可以支持 MCI 中的空间记忆。
我们旨在评估导航线索在老龄化创新空间训练中的作用。
本研究招募了 15 名 MCI 患者。通过带有五种不同虚拟现实 (VR) 辅助编码导航程序的导航任务（身体、仅视觉、交互式客体中心地图、减少执行负载、无线索自由导航）测试了他们的自我中心和客体中心记忆回忆表现。身体条件包括沉浸式 VR 设置，以参与自我运动线索，仅视觉条件包括无交互的被动导航，在交互式客体中心地图条件下，患者可以使用鸟瞰图，在减少执行负载条件下使用方向线索和注意力标记，而在自由导航时没有任何辅助。
与仅视觉和无线索自由导航相比，身体条件改善了空间记忆。此外，交互式客体中心地图优于无线索自由导航。令人惊讶的是，减少执行负载与仅视觉条件相当。此外，自由导航在整个测试试验中对客体中心记忆产生了不利影响。
这些发现挑战了老龄化中空间的非模态表示的概念，表明空间地图可能受到环境最初编码的方式的影响。
