Spatial navigation in young versus older adults

Older age is associated with changes in the brain, including the medial temporal lobe, which may result in mild spatial navigation deficits, especially in allocentric navigation. The aim of the study was to characterize the profile of real-space allocentric (world-centered, hippocampus-dependent) and egocenric (body-centered, parietal lobe dependent) navigation and learning in young vs. older adults, and to assess a possible influence of gender. We recruited healthy participants without cognitice deficits on standard neuropsychological testing, white mater lesions or pronounced hippocampal atrophy: 24 young participants (18-26 yars old) and 44 older participants stratified as participants 60-70 years old (n = 24) and participants 71-84 years old (n = 20). All underwent spatial navigation testing in the real-space human analog of the Morris Water Maze, which has the advantage of assessing separately allocentric and egocentric navigation and learning. Of the eight consecutive trials, trials 2-8 were used to reduce bias by a rebound effect (more dramatic changes in performance between trials (p < 0.001), but not those 60-70 years old, showed deficits in allocentric navigation compared to the young participants. There were no differences in egocentric navigation. All theree groups showed spatial learning effect (p'

Spatial navigation – a unique window into physiological and pathological aging

Spatial navigation is a skill of determining and maintaining a trajectory from one place to another. Mild progressive decline of spatial navigation develops gradually during the course of physiological ageing. Nevertheless, severe spatial navigation deficit can be the first sign of incipient Alzheimer’s disease (AD), occurring in the stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), preceding the development of a full blown dementia. Patients with amnestic MCI, especially those with the hippocampal type of amnestic syndrome, are at very high risk of AD. These patients present with the same pattern of spatial navigation impairment as do the patients with mild AD. Spatial navigation testing of elderly as well as computer tests developed for routine clinical use thus represent a possibility for further investigation of this cognitive domain, but most of all, an opportunity for making early diagnosis of AD