Topographical disorientation in aging. Familiarity with the environment does matter

Abstract

Topographical disorientation (TD) refers to navigational impairment as an effect of aging or brain damage. Decreases in navigational performance with aging are more due to deficits in the ability to mentally represent space in an object-centered (allocentric) than in a self-centered (egocentric) format. Familiarity/remoteness of spatial memory traces can represent a protective factor for TD in aging. Conversely, using newly learned information for assessment may lead to overestimating TD severity as it combines two contributing factors: heading (allocentric) disorientation and anterograde agnosia. A supplementary evaluation of TD with aging according to ecological spatial tasks is recommended. The core tasks should focus on landmark positioning, both on a blind map (allocentric) and along a route (egocentric) of the hometown so as to disentangle spatial memory for familiar/remote information from decline due to recent encoding of information.

Continuous Environmental Changes May Enhance Topographic Memory Skills. Evidence From L’Aquila Earthquake-Exposed Survivors

“…Their answers to the FSCS showed that they were confident in moving around L’Aquila city without experiencing topographic disorientation episodes. Therefore, the two groups cannot be considered equivalent with respect to the degree of familiarity with the city, a factor that has importance in human navigation proficiency (e.g., Nori and Piccardi, 2011 ; Lopez et al, 2018 ).…”

Studying Individual Differences in Spatial Cognition Through Differential Item Functioning Analysis

“…Participants were required to complete landmark positioning on a map task (LPM, [ 25 ], see Figure 1 . Participants were first required to recognize 10 well-known landmarks in their hometown that were displayed in photographs (see Figure 2 a,b).…”

“…Regarding gender differences, several reviews and meta-analyses witnessed the amount of primary studies on the role of gender in spatial abilities (e.g., [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]), mental rotation [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], spatial orientation [ 9 ], spatial navigation [ 10 ], spatial learning and memory in cognition [ 11 ] and sports [ 12 ], categorical and coordinate spatial relations [ 13 ], visuo-spatial abilities in adults [ 14 ] and in students with learning disabilities [ 15 ], and spatial reasoning [ 16 ]. Age differences have also been investigated and summarized in reviews and meta-analyses concerning spatial cognition in general [ 17 , 18 ] spatial memory [ 19 ] and spatial navigation processes in both normal [ 20 ] and impaired aging [ 21 ], egocentric and allocentric spatial reference frames in aging [ 22 ] virtual reality for the diagnosis of spatial navigation disorders [ 23 ], visuospatial working memory [ 24 ], topographical disorientation in aging within familiar and unfamiliar environment [ 25 ], and heritability of cognitive aging [ 26 ]. Dealing with gender and age differences in assessment and intervention contexts poses at least two complementary issues, one in which researchers and professionals are interested in finding and employing tools that can dissolve such differences, and the other in which they are interested in finding and employing tools that can maximize them.…”

“…In the present study, DIF analysis based on logistic regression will be applied to a task developed by Lopez et al [ 25 ] to investigate hometown topographical knowledge. Recent literature showed that familiarity with the environment might represent a protective factor from spatial memory impairment in non-pathological cognitive aging, in particular for allocentric tasks.…”

“…Indeed, information consolidated across a huge number of retrieval episodes seems to be solidly preserved in elderly people, making them to obtain a performance comparable with that of younger people [ 41 , 42 , 43 ]. The Landmark Positioning on a Map (LPM, [ 25 ]) is used to assess allocentric remote spatial memory, in which participants had to identify and pinpoint the correct position of eight well-known landmarks of their hometown on a blind map of the city, keeping in mind metric (i.e., relative distances) as well as categorical (“A is above/below and left/right of B”) spatial relationship between landmarks. LPM is intended to be age and education fair, as it did not favor young people compared with aged ones or healthy elderly with high and low level of education [ 44 ].…”