Spatial and temporal aspects of navigation in two neurological patients

Abstract

We present two cases (A.C. and W.J.) with navigation problems resulting from parieto-occipital right hemisphere damage. For both the cases, performance on the neuropsychological tests did not indicate specific impairments in spatial processing, despite severe subjective complaints of spatial disorientation. Various aspects of navigation were tested in a new virtual reality task, the Virtual Tübingen task. A double dissociation between spatial and temporal deficits was found; A.C. was impaired in route ordering, a temporal test, whereas W.J. was impaired in scene recognition and route continuation, which are spatial in nature. These findings offer important insights in the functional and neural architecture of navigation

Qualitative differences in memory for vista and environmental spaces are caused by opaque borders, not movement or successive presentation

“…Close-by and distant pointing targets were processed equally fast indicating similar access from within a common memory unit. While we do find reminiscence of the experienced order, this order effect still differs from ES learning and might be based on a memory system independent of the organization of spatial relations (Packard & McGaugh, 1996;Restle, 1957;van der Ham et al, 2010). Findings showing that place and grid cells in rats do not remap within a single constant VS (Derdikman et al, 2009;Skaggs & McNaughton, 1998) do further support the assumption of a single VS unit in memory.…”

“…Such a dissociation of memory systems specialized in spatial locations vs. behavioral responses, which incorporate also the temporal order, have been proposed before (Packard & McGaugh, 1996;Restle, 1957). In a case study van der Ham et al (2010) demonstrated how temporal and spatial aspects of navigation are dissociated in humans. Impairment in a route ordering task did not similarly lead to impairment in route continuation task, or vice versa.…”

The Wayfinding Questionnaire as a Self-report Screening Instrument for Navigation-related Complaints After Stroke: Internal Validity in Healthy Respondents and Chronic Mild Stroke Patients

“…A series of recent group and case studies has convincingly shown that brain damage resulting from stroke may have detrimental effects on the ability to navigate (e.g., Busigny et al, 2014;Claessen et al, 2016;Ino et al, 2007;Mendez & Cherrier, 2003;Van Asselen et al, 2006;Van der Ham et al, 2010). Using self-report measures, it has even been found that complaints about the ability to navigate are relatively common after mild stroke (± 29%; Van der Ham et al, 2013).…”

PandaEPL: A library for programming spatial navigation experiments

“…Often this has involved modifying game engines that have been made open source (e.g., Doeller et al, 2010; Doeller et al, 2008; Hassabis et al, 2009; Iaria et al, 2007; Maguire et al, 1998), although some researchers have opted to create software from scratch (e.g., Gron et al, 2000; van der Ham et al, 2010). There are at least three disadvantages to this approach.…”

“…The widespread availability of noninvasive recording techniques such as scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging, combined with the rise in cognitive research involving neurosurgical patients with implanted electrodes, have made it possible to study these mechanisms in humans (e.g., Alvarez, Biggs, Chen, Pine, & Grillon, 2008; Astur, Taylor, Mamelak, Philpott, & Sutherland, 2002; Cornwell, Johnson, Holroyd, Carver, & Grillon, 2008; Doeller, Barry, & Burgess, 2010; Doeller, King, & Burgess, 2008; Ekstrom, Copara, Isham, Wang, & Yonelinas, 2011; Ekstrom et al, 2003; Gron, Wunderlich, Spitzer, Tomczak, & Riepe, 2000; Hassabis et al, 2009; Iaria, Chen, Guariglia, Ptito, & Petrides, 2007; Jacobs, Kahana, Ekstrom, Mollison, & Fried, 2010; Jacobs, Korolev, et al, 2010; Maguire et al, 1998; Shipman & Astur, 2008; Suthana et al, 2012; van der Ham et al, 2010; Watrous, Fried, & Ekstrom, 2011; Weidemann, Mollison, & Kahana, 2009). Because these techniques require participants to remain stationary throughout the recording period, researchers often use computer-controlled virtual reality (VR) environments.…”