Merhav Maayan
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Aging and Cognition Research Group, Magdeburg, Germany.
Education Department, Tel Hai College, Upper Galilee, Israel.
Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2025 Mar;32(2):326-342. doi: 10.1080/13825585.2024.2387362. Epub 2024 Aug 14.
Navigational abilities decline with age, but the cognitive underpinnings of this cognitive decline remain partially understood. Navigation is guided by landmarks and self-motion cues, that we address when estimating our location. These sources of spatial information are often associated with noise and uncertainty, thus posing a challenge during navigation. To overcome this challenge, humans and other species rely on navigational cues according to their reliability: reliable cues are highly weighted and therefore strongly influence our spatial behavior, compared to less reliable ones. We hypothesize that older adults do not efficiently weigh spatial cues, and accordingly, the reliability levels of navigational cues may not modulate their spatial behavior, as with younger adults. To test this, younger and older adults performed a virtual navigational task, subject to modified reliability of landmarks and self-motion cues. The findings revealed that while increased reliability of spatial cues improved navigational performance across both age groups, older adults exhibited diminished sensitivity to changes in landmark reliability. The findings demonstrate a cognitive mechanism that could lead to impaired navigation abilities in older adults.
导航能力会随着年龄的增长而下降，但这种认知能力下降的认知基础仍未被完全理解。导航是由地标和自我运动线索引导的，我们在估计自己的位置时会利用这些线索。这些空间信息来源通常与噪声和不确定性相关，因此在导航过程中构成了一项挑战。为了克服这一挑战，人类和其他物种会根据线索的可靠性依赖导航线索：与不太可靠的线索相比，可靠的线索权重更高，因此对我们的空间行为有更强的影响。我们假设老年人不能有效地权衡空间线索，因此，与年轻人不同，导航线索的可靠性水平可能不会调节他们的空间行为。为了验证这一点，年轻人和老年人进行了一项虚拟导航任务，其中地标和自我运动线索的可靠性有所改变。研究结果显示，虽然空间线索可靠性的提高改善了两个年龄组的导航表现，但老年人对地标可靠性变化的敏感度较低。这些发现揭示了一种可能导致老年人导航能力受损的认知机制。
