Virtual navigation tested on a mobile app is predictive of real-world wayfinding navigation performance

Navigating space and the developing mind

In this article, we review the extensive and complex fabric of literature concerning the ontogenesis of spatial representations from earliest childhood to the elderly, including normal and abnormal aging (dementia and Alzheimer's disease). We also revisit fundamental concepts of the neuronal representations of space, egocentric vs. allocentric reference frames, and path integration. We highlight a thread of contradictions in spatial cognition from infant cognition to the first breakthrough at around the age of four. The contradictions reemerge in the literature on age-related decline in spatial cognition. We argue that these contradictions derive from the incorrect assumption that path integration is exclusively associated with allocentric frames of references, hence, signatures of path integration are often taken as evidence for allocentric perspective-taking. We posit that several contradictions in the literature can be resolved by acknowledging that path integration is agnostic to the type of reference frame and can be implemented in both egocentric and allocentric frames of reference. By freeing the frames of reference from path integration, we arrive at a developmental trajectory consistent across cognitive development studies, enabling us to ask questions that may dissolve the obscurity of this topic. The new model also sheds light on the very early stage of spatial cognition.

Investigating the associations between tau and mental orientation among cognitively unimpaired individuals

BackgroundImpairments in orientation in space, time, and person occur frequently in Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia. Subtle changes in orientation may arise in preclinical and prodromal disease stages. Thus, assessing orientation may help identify those on a trajectory toward AD dementia.ObjectiveTo investigate how orientation, measured using a novel artificial intelligence-based paradigm, relates to AD biomarkers (amyloid and tau) in cognitively unimpaired older adults.MethodsUsing an automated chatbot, 53 cognitively unimpaired participants (74.0 ± 5.5 years; 60% female) provided details about memories and relationships, recognition of historical event dates, and geographical locations. These details were then used to assess orientation to space, time, and person. For each domain separately, orientation accuracy was calculated by dividing the number of correct responses by response time. All participants underwent Pittsburgh compound-B (amyloid) and flortaucipir (tau) positron emission tomography. We analyzed the relationship between performance on the three orientation domains and retrosplenial, precuneus, neocortical, and medial temporal tau, and global amyloid.ResultsHigher retrosplenial and precuneus tau burden were associated with worse temporal orientation (β = -0.32, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = [-0.59, -0.05] and β = -0.29, 95%CI = [-0.57, -0.01], respectively). Spatial or social orientation were not associated with amyloid or tau.ConclusionsThese results suggest that impaired temporal orientation is related to AD pathological processes, even before the onset of overt cognitive impairment, and may infer a role for personalized assessment of orientation in early diagnosis of AD.

MemScreen: A smartphone application for detection of mild cognitive impairment: A validation study: Smartphone App for MCI Detection

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Primary care is often the first point of contact for patients with cognitive complaints, making initial cognitive screening an essential step to avoid delays in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD) at an early stage. We developed MemScreen, a self-administered smartphone application that assesses overall cognition and verbal memory, and evaluated its ability to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in both general and clinical populations.

METHODS

We conducted two validation cohort studies: (1) UK-based Whitehall II cohort study (13th wave, 2018-2022) involving a general population (MCI defined by poor performance on a global cognitive score), and (2) five French memory clinics involving patients without dementia (amnestic MCI defined by the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test). MemScreen, MMSE, and TMT-A effectiveness was assessed using Area Under the Curve (AUC) values from unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models.

RESULTS

In Whitehall II (n = 2118, mean age 75.9 years, 23.9 % women, 14.5 % MCI), median MemScreen completion time was 4 min 18 s. MemScreen had the highest AUC (0.87; 95 % CI: 0.82-0.89) for distinguishing MCI, outperforming MMSE (AUC = 0.79; 0.76-0.82; p = 0.018) and TMT-A (AUC = 0.77; 0.74-0.80; p = 0.023). MemScreen sensitivity and specificity were 78.6 % and 78.7 %, respectively. In memory clinics (n = 303, mean age 70.5 years, 53 % women, 46.9 % amnestic MCI), median completion time was 5 min 17 s. MemScreen showed superior performance (AUC = 0.87; 0.83-0.91) compared to MMSE (AUC = 0.72; 0.67-0.78; p < 0.001) and TMT-A (AUC = 0.63; 0.56-0.69; p < 0.001), with 93.0 % sensitivity and 54.0 % specificity for amnestic MCI.

DISCUSSION

MemScreen outperformed traditional tests in identifying MCI in both general and clinical populations. Its self-administration and short completion time suggest potential as an effective screening tool to optimize memory clinic referrals for AD diagnosis and treatment.

Learning the layout of different environments: common or dissociated abilities?

People navigate in various types of spaces, including indoor and outdoor environments. These differ in availability of navigational cues, such as distal landmarks, clear boundaries, and regular grid structures. Does learning the layout of different types of environments rely on the same or diverse cognitive abilities? Do separate measures of learning reflect different abilities? In a study of individual differences, 88 people learned the layout of two virtual environments from first person experience: a grid-like maze, and a campus-like open environment. After learning each environment, their knowledge was measured by three tasks; onsite pointing, map-reconstruction, and wayfinding. Performance on these measures was significantly correlated. In confirmatory factor analyses, the best fitting model indicated separate factors for spatial knowledge acquisition of the grid-like maze and the outdoor open environment. However, these two factors also shared considerable variance, indicating that they reflect a common underlying ability. There was no evidence that different measures of learning (pointing, map reconstruction, and wayfinding) defined separate abilities, adding to their validity as alternative measures of configural knowledge. Performance of map-based navigation and path integration in the mobile navigation game Sea Hero Quest was generally not correlated with performance in the environment learning tasks, nor were self-report measures of sense of direction and spatial anxiety. Our research suggests that there is a common ability related to learning spatial layout in different contexts, but this may be distinct from other navigation abilities.

Predicting real-world navigation performance from a virtual navigation task in older adults

Virtual reality environments presented on tablets and smartphones offer a novel way of measuring navigation skill and predicting real-world navigation problems. The extent to which such virtual tests are effective at predicting navigation in older populations remains unclear. We compared the performance of 20 older participants (54-74 years old) in wayfinding tasks in a real-world environment in London, UK, and in similar tasks designed in a mobile app-based test of navigation (Sea Hero Quest). In a previous study with young participants (18-35 years old), we were able to predict navigation performance in real-world tasks in London and Paris using this mobile app. We find that for the older cohort, virtual navigation performance predicts real-world performance for medium difficulty, but not for the easy or difficult environments. Overall, our study supports the utility of using digital tests of spatial cognition in older age groups, while carefully adapting the task difficulty to the population.

Effectiveness and feasibility of a theory-informed intervention to improve Mediterranean diet adherence, physical activity and cognition in older adults at risk of dementia: the MedEx-UK randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Despite an urgent need for multi-domain lifestyle interventions to reduce dementia risk, there is a lack of interventions which are informed by theory- and evidence-based behaviour change strategies, and no interventions in this domain have investigated the feasibility or effectiveness of behaviour change maintenance. We tested the feasibility, acceptability and cognitive effects of a personalised theory-based 24-week intervention to improve Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence alone, or in combination with physical activity (PA), in older-adults at risk of dementia, defined using a cardiovascular risk score.

METHODS

Participants (n = 104, 74% female, 57-76 years) were randomised to three parallel intervention arms: (1) control, (2) MD, or (3) MD + PA for 24 weeks and invited to an optional 24-week follow-up period with no active intervention. Behaviour change was supported using personalised targets, a web-based intervention, group sessions and food provision. The primary outcome was behaviour change (MD adherence and PA levels), and the secondary outcomes included feasibility and acceptability, cognitive function, cardiometabolic health (BMI and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure) and process measures.

RESULTS

The intervention was feasible and acceptable with the intended number of participants completing the study. Participant engagement with group sessions and food provision components was high. There was improved MD adherence in the two MD groups compared with control at 24 weeks (3.7 points on a 14-point scale (95% CI 2.9, 4.5) and 48 weeks (2.7 points (95% CI 1.6, 3.7)). The intervention did not significantly change objectively measured PA. Improvements in general cognition (0.22 (95% CI 0.05, 0.35), memory (0.31 (95% CI 0.10, 0.51) and select cardiovascular outcomes captured as underpinning physiological mechanisms were observed in the MD groups at 24 weeks.

CONCLUSIONS

The intervention was successful in initiating and maintaining dietary behaviour change for up to 12 months which resulted in cognitive benefits. It provides a framework for future complex behaviour change interventions with a range of health and well-being endpoints.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03673722.

Dementia and Video Games: Systematic and Bibliographic Review

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

This systematic and bibliographic review examines publications in the field of dementia and video game research from 2004 to 2023. The main objective is to assess developments and trends in video game technology for dementia care and detection.

METHODS

The PubMed database was the primary source for publications. PRISMA guidelines were applied to structure this review. Ten variables were defined, investigated, and split into three main categories: bibliographic, medical, and technical.

RESULTS

The results were synthesized using a quantitative approach to reduce bias through interpretation. Of 209 initial results, 77 publications have been included in the investigation. More studies focus on rehabilitation over assessment and detection of dementia. Clinical trials are typically conducted with limited participants. The most populated trials rarely enrol over 300 subjects. On average, around 38 subjects were enrolled in the trials. These studies are commonly supervised by a trainer or technology specialist, suggesting a technology gap in familiarity in the trial demographic.

CONCLUSIONS

Most interventions assessed were custom-designed applications with a specific outcome, focusing on physical activity and cognitive exercises. As the first of its kind, this publication focuses on the technical aspects of applied technologies and development methods. Using video games to treat and detect patients with cognitive impairments like dementia can benefit healthcare professionals, caretakers, and patients.

Ecological brain: reframing the study of human behaviour and cognition

The last decade has seen substantial advances in the capacity to record behaviour and neural activity in humans in real-world settings, to simulate real-world situations in laboratory settings and to apply sophisticated analyses to large-scale data. Along with these developments, a growing number of groups has begun to advocate for real-world neuroscience and cognitive science. Here, we review the arguments and the available methods for real-world research and outline an overarching framework that embeds key ideas proposed in the literature integrating them into a cyclic process of 'bringing the lab to the real world' (recording behavioural and neural activity in real-world settings) and 'bringing the real-world to the lab' (manipulating the environments in which behaviours occur in the laboratory) that combines exploratory and confirmatory research and is interdisciplinary (including those sciences concerned with the natural, built or virtual environment). We highlight the benefits brought by this framework emphasizing the greater potential for novel discovery, theory development and human-centred applications to the environment.

Architectural styles of curiosity in global Wikipedia mobile app readership

Intrinsically motivated information seeking is an expression of curiosity believed to be central to human nature. However, most curiosity research relies on small, Western convenience samples. Here, we analyze a naturalistic population of 482,760 readers using Wikipedia's mobile app in 14 languages from 50 countries or territories. By measuring the structure of knowledge networks constructed by readers weaving a thread through articles in Wikipedia, we replicate two styles of curiosity previously identified in laboratory studies: the nomadic "busybody" and the targeted "hunter." Further, we find evidence for another style-the "dancer"-which was previously predicted by a historico-philosophical examination of texts over two millennia and is characterized by creative modes of knowledge production. We identify associations, globally, between the structure of knowledge networks and population-level indicators of spatial navigation, education, mood, well-being, and inequality. These results advance our understanding of Wikipedia's global readership and demonstrate how cultural and geographical properties of the digital environment relate to different styles of curiosity.

Identifying older adults at risk for dementia based on smartphone data obtained during a wayfinding task in the real world

Alzheimer's disease (AD), as the most common form of dementia and leading cause for disability and death in old age, represents a major burden to healthcare systems worldwide. For the development of disease-modifying interventions and treatments, the detection of cognitive changes at the earliest disease stages is crucial. Recent advancements in mobile consumer technologies provide new opportunities to collect multi-dimensional data in real-life settings to identify and monitor at-risk individuals. Based on evidence showing that deficits in spatial navigation are a common hallmark of dementia, we assessed whether a memory clinic sample of patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) who still scored normally on neuropsychological assessments show differences in smartphone-assisted wayfinding behavior compared with cognitively healthy older and younger adults. Guided by a mobile application, participants had to find locations along a short route on the medical campus of the Magdeburg university. We show that performance measures that were extracted from GPS and user input data distinguish between the groups. In particular, the number of orientation stops was predictive of the SCD status in older participants. Our data suggest that subtle cognitive changes in patients with SCD, whose risk to develop dementia in the future is elevated, can be inferred from smartphone data, collected during a brief wayfinding task in the real world.

Spatial Orientation Assessment in the Elderly: A Comprehensive Review of Current Tests

Spatial orientation and navigation are complex cognitive functions that integrate sensory information, attention, and memory, enabling individuals to locate themselves in their environment. These abilities decline with age, signaling cognitive impairment in neurological patients, and significantly limit the autonomy of the elderly. Current neuropsychological assessments fall short in accurately measuring everyday wayfinding abilities, particularly in borderline cases of cognitive decline. This paper reviews various neuropsychological assessments, including Benton's Judgment of Line Orientation Test, the Almeria Spatial Memory Recognition Test, the Spatial Span subtest from the Wechsler Memory Scale, and the Spatial Orientation in Immersive Virtual Environment Maze Test, evaluating their effectiveness in delineating spatial orientation and navigation skills. The review identifies significant gaps in the validity and reliability of these tests, particularly in their shortened versions, and highlights the potential of virtual reality environments as promising tools for improving diagnostic precision. The findings underscore the need for further research to refine these tools, ensuring they accurately capture cognitive decline and improve the differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Such advancements hold promise for enhancing the quality of care and autonomy for the elderly.

Assessment of executive functions using a 3D-video game in children and adolescents with ADHD

Objective

Executive functions are important factors that affect the well-being of children with ADHD. Therefore, inclusion of a convenient assessment of executive dysfunction in diagnosis and treatment of ADHD patients is warranted. However, executive dysfunction assessment presently relies on lab-based neuropsychological tests and symptom rating scales. The present study examined the potential of a 3-D action puzzle video game to reflect ecologically valid executive functioning in pediatric ADHD patients.

Methods

Participant gameplay metrics were compared to both their Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) and Conners 3 Parent Form's executive functioning subscale scores. Participants consisted of 33 ADHD and non-ADHD patients aged 8-21.

Results

Metrics from gameplay were associated with distinct CANTAB test scores, and a composite score from gameplay was significantly correlated with executive dysfunction from Conners 3.

Conclusion

For children with ADHD, cognitive domains related to executive function and overall real-life executive functioning appear to both be measurable via video games. It may be possible to develop individualized behavioral therapy based on the quantitative data obtained from the video game used in this study.

Combining patient-lesion and big data approaches to reveal hippocampal contributions to spatial memory and navigation

Classic findings of impaired allocentric spatial learning and memory following hippocampal lesions indicate that the hippocampus supports cognitive maps of one's environment. Many studies assess navigation in vista space virtual reality environments and compare hippocampal-lesioned individuals' performance to that of small control samples, potentially stifling detection of preserved and impaired performance. Using the mobile app Sea Hero Quest, we examined navigation in diverse complex environments in two individuals with hippocampal lesions relative to demographically matched controls (N = 17,734). We found surprisingly accurate navigation in several environments, particularly those containing a constrained set of sub-goals, paths, and/or turns. Areas of impaired performance may reflect a role for the hippocampus in anterograde memory and more flexible and/or precise spatial representations, even when the need for allocentric processing is minimal. The results emphasize the value of combining single cases with big data and illustrate navigation performance profiles in individuals with hippocampal compromise.

Wayfinding in pairs: comparing the planning and navigation performance of dyads and individuals in a real-world environment

Navigation is essential to life, and it is cognitively complex, drawing on abilities such as prospective and situated planning, spatial memory, location recognition, and real-time decision-making. In many cases, day-to-day navigation is embedded in a social context where cognition and behavior are shaped by others, but the great majority of existing research in spatial cognition has focused on individuals. The two studies we report here contribute to our understanding of social wayfinding, assessing the performance of paired and individual navigators on a real-world wayfinding task in which they were instructed to minimize time and distance traveled. In the first study, we recruited 30 pairs of friends (familiar dyads); in the second, we recruited 30 solo participants (individuals). We compare the two studies to the results of an earlier study of 30 pairs of strangers (unfamiliar dyads). We draw out differences in performance with respect to spatial, social, and cognitive considerations. Of the three conditions, solo participants were least successful in reaching the destination accurately on their initial attempt. Friends traveled more efficiently than either strangers or individuals. Working with a partner also appeared to lend confidence to wayfinders: dyads of either familiarity type were more persistent than individuals in the navigation task, even after encountering challenges or making incorrect attempts. Route selection was additionally impacted by route complexity and unfamiliarity with the study area. Navigators explicitly used ease of remembering as a planning criterion, and the resulting differences in route complexity likely influenced success during enacted navigation.

The relationship between object-based spatial ability and virtual navigation performance

Spatial navigation is a multi-faceted behaviour drawing on many different aspects of cognition. Visuospatial abilities, such as mental rotation and visuospatial working memory, in particular, may be key factors. A range of tests have been developed to assess visuospatial processing and memory, but how such tests relate to navigation ability remains unclear. This understanding is important to advance tests of navigation for disease monitoring in various disorders (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) where spatial impairment is an early symptom. Here, we report the use of an established mobile gaming app, Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), as a measure of navigation ability in a sample of young, predominantly female university students (N = 78; 20; female = 74.3%; mean age = 20.33 years). We used three separate tests of navigation embedded in SHQ: wayfinding, path integration and spatial memory in a radial arm maze. In the same participants, we also collected measures of mental rotation (Mental Rotation Test), visuospatial processing (Design Organization Test) and visuospatial working memory (Digital Corsi). We found few strong correlations across our measures. Being good at wayfinding in a virtual navigation test does not mean an individual will also be good at path integration, have a superior memory in a radial arm maze, or rate themself as having a strong sense of direction. However, we observed that participants who were good in the wayfinding task of SHQ tended to perform well on the three visuospatial tasks examined here, and to also use a landmark strategy in the radial maze task. These findings help clarify the associations between different abilities involved in spatial navigation.

Early detection of diseases causing dementia using digital navigation and gait measures: A systematic review of evidence

Wearable digital technologies capable of measuring everyday behaviors could improve the early detection of dementia-causing diseases. We conducted two systematic reviews following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to establish the evidence base for measuring navigation and gait, two everyday behaviors affected early in AD and non-AD disorders and not adequately measured in current practice. PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for studies on asymptomatic and early-stage symptomatic individuals at risk of dementia, with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale used to assess bias and evaluate methodological quality. Of 316 navigation and 2086 gait records identified, 27 and 83, respectively, were included in the final sample. We highlight several measures that may identify at-risk individuals, whose quantifiability with different devices mitigates the risk of future technological obsolescence. Beyond navigation and gait, this review also provides the framework for evaluating the evidence base for future digital measures of behaviors considered for early disease detection.

Hippocampal subfield plasticity is associated with improved spatial memory

Physical exercise studies are generally underrepresented in young adulthood. Seventeen subjects were randomized into an intervention group (24.2 ± 3.9 years; 3 trainings/week) and 10 subjects into a passive control group (23.7 ± 4.2 years), over a duration of 6 months. Every two months, performance diagnostics, computerized spatial memory tests, and 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging were conducted. Here we find that the intervention group, compared to controls, showed increased cardiorespiratory fitness, spatial memory performance and subregional hippocampal volumes over time. Time-by-condition interactions occurred in right cornu ammonis 4 body and (trend only) dentate gyrus, left hippocampal tail and left subiculum. Increases in spatial memory performance correlated with hippocampal body volume changes and, subregionally, with left subicular volume changes. In conclusion, findings support earlier reports of exercise-induced subregional hippocampal volume changes. Such exercise-related plasticity may not only be of interest for young adults with clinical disorders of hippocampal function, but also for sedentary normal cohorts.

Assessing the impact of LEGO® construction training on spatial and mathematical skills

Lego construction ability is associated with a variety of spatial skills and mathematical outcomes. However, it is unknown whether these relations are causal. We aimed to establish the causal impact of Lego construction training on: Lego construction ability; a broad range of spatial skills; and on mathematical outcomes in 7-9-year-olds. We also aimed to identify how this causal impact differs for digital versus physical Lego construction training. One-hundred and ninety-eight children took part in a six-week training programme, delivered twice weekly as a school lunch time club. They completed either physical Lego training (N = 59), digital Lego training (N = 64), or an active control condition (crafts; N = 75). All children completed baseline and follow-up measures of spatial skills (disembedding, visuo-spatial working memory, spatial scaling, mental rotation, and performance on a spatial-numerical task, the number line task), mathematical outcomes (geometry, arithmetic, and overall mathematical skills) and Lego construction ability. Exploratory analyses revealed evidence for near transfer (Lego construction ability) and some evidence for far transfer (arithmetic) of Lego training, but overall transfer was limited. Despite this, we identified key areas for further development (explicit focus on spatial strategies, training for teachers, and embedding the programme within a mathematical context). The findings of this study can be used to inform future development of Lego construction training programmes to support mathematics learning.

Shorter self-reported sleep duration is associated with worse virtual spatial navigation performance in men

Sleep has been shown to impact navigation ability. However, it remains unclear how different sleep-related variables may be independently associated with spatial navigation performance, and as to whether gender may play a role in these associations. We used a mobile video game app, Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), to measure wayfinding ability in US-based participants. Wayfinding performance on SHQ has been shown to correlate with real-world wayfinding. Participants were asked to report their sleep duration, quality, daytime sleepiness and nap frequency and duration on a typical night (n = 766, 335 men, 431 women, mean age = 26.5 years, range = 18-59 years). A multiple linear regression was used to identify which self-reported sleep variables were independently associated with wayfinding performance. Shorter self-reported sleep durations were significantly associated with worse wayfinding performance in men only. Other self-reported sleep variables showed non-significant trends of association with wayfinding performance. When removing non-typical sleepers (< 6 or > 9 h of sleep on a typical night), the significant association between sleep duration and spatial navigation performance in men was no longer present. These findings from U.S.-based participants suggest that a longer self-reported sleep duration may be an important contributor to successful navigation ability in men.

Impoverished details with preserved gist in remote and recent spatial memory following hippocampal and fornix lesions

INTRODUCTION

Cognitive Map Theory predicts that the hippocampus (HPC) plays a specialized, time-invariant role in supporting allocentric spatial memory, while Standard Consolidation Theory makes the competing prediction that the HPC plays a time-limited role, with more remote memories gaining independence of HPC function. These theories, however, are largely informed by the results of laboratory-based tests that are unlikely to simulate the demands of representing real-world environments in humans. Validation of these theories is further limited by an overall focus on spatial memory of newly encountered environments and on individuals with extensive lesions to the HPC and to surrounding medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions. The current study incorporates naturalistic tests of spatial memory based on recently and remotely encountered environments navigated by individuals with lesions to the HPC/MTL or that are limited to the HPC's major output, the fornix.

METHODS

Four participants with bilateral HPC/MTL and/or fornix lesions drew sketch maps of recently and remotely experienced neighbourhoods and houses. Tests of the appearance, distances, and routes between landmarks from the same real-world environments were also administered. Performance on the tasks was compared to that of control participants closely matched in terms of exposure to the same neighbourhoods and home environments as well as to actual maps.

RESULTS

The performance of individuals with fornix/MTL lesions was found to be largely comparable to that of controls on objective tests of spatial memory, other than one case who was impaired on remote and recent conditions for several tasks. The nature of deficits in recent and remote spatial memory were further revealed on house floorplan drawings, which contained spatial distortions, room/structure transpositions, and omissions, and on neighbourhood sketch maps, which were intact in terms of overall layout but sparse in details such as landmarks.

CONCLUSION

Lab-based tests of spatial memory of newly learned environments are unlikely to fully capture patterns of spared and impaired representations of real-world environments (e.g., peripheral features, configurations). Naturalistic tasks, including generative drawing tasks, indicate that contrary to Cognitive Map Theory, neither HPC nor MTL are critical for allocentric gross representations of large-scale environments. Conversely, the HPC appears critical for representing detailed spatial information of local naturalistic environments and environmental objects regardless of the age of the memory, contrary to Standard Consolidation Theory.

Wayfinding across ocean and tundra: what traditional cultures teach us about navigation

Research on human navigation by psychologists and neuroscientists has come mainly from a limited range of environments and participants inhabiting western countries. By contrast, numerous anthropological accounts illustrate the diverse ways in which cultures adapt to their surrounding environment to navigate. Here, we provide an overview of these studies and relate them to cognitive science research. The diversity of cues in traditional navigation is much higher and multimodal compared with navigation experiments in the laboratory. It typically involves an integrated system of methods, drawing on a detailed understanding of the environmental cues, specific tools, and forms part of a broader cultural system. We highlight recent methodological developments for measuring navigation skill and modelling behaviour that will aid future research into how culture and environment shape human navigation.

Standard experimental paradigm designs and data exclusion practices in cognitive psychology can inadvertently introduce systematic "shadow" biases in participant samples

Standard cognitive psychology research practices can introduce inadvertent sampling biases that reduce the reliability and generalizability of the findings. Researchers commonly acknowledge and understand that any given study sample is not perfectly generalizable, especially when implementing typical experimental constraints (e.g., limiting recruitment to specific age ranges or to individuals with normal color vision). However, less obvious systematic sampling constraints, referred to here as "shadow" biases, can be unintentionally introduced and can easily go unnoticed. For example, many standard cognitive psychology study designs involve lengthy and tedious experiments with simple, repetitive stimuli. Such testing environments may 1) be aversive to some would-be participants (e.g., those high in certain neurodivergent symptoms) who may self-select not to enroll in such studies, or 2) contribute to participant attrition, both of which reduce the sample's representativeness. Likewise, standard performance-based data exclusion efforts (e.g., minimum accuracy or response time) or attention checks can systematically remove data from participants from subsets of the population (e.g., those low in conscientiousness). This commentary focuses on the theoretical and practical issues behind these non-obvious and often unacknowledged "shadow" biases, offers a simple illustration with real data as a proof of concept of how applying attention checks can systematically skew latent/hidden variables in the included population, and then discusses the broader implications with suggestions for how to manage and reduce, or at a minimum acknowledge, the problem.

No link between handedness and spatial navigation: evidence from over 400 000 participants in 41 countries

There is an active debate concerning the association of handedness and spatial ability. Past studies used small sample sizes. Determining the effect of handedness on spatial ability requires a large, cross-cultural sample of participants and a navigation task with real-world validity. Here, we overcome these challenges via the mobile app Sea Hero Quest. We analysed the navigation performance from 422 772 participants from 41 countries and found no reliable evidence for any difference in spatial ability between left- and right-handers across all countries. A small but growing gap in performance appears for participants over 64 years old, with left-handers outperforming right-handers. Further analysis, however, suggests that this gap is most likely due to selection bias. Overall, our study clarifies the factors associated with spatial ability and shows that left-handedness is not associated with either a benefit or a deficit in spatial ability.

Induction of spatial anxiety in a virtual navigation environment

Spatial anxiety (i.e., feelings of apprehension and fear about navigating everyday environments) can adversely impact people's ability to reach desired locations and explore unfamiliar places. Prior research has either assessed spatial anxiety as an individual-difference variable or measured it as an outcome, but there are currently no experimental inductions to investigate its causal effects. To address this lacuna, we developed a novel protocol for inducing spatial anxiety within a virtual environment. Participants first learnt a route using directional arrows. Next, we removed the directional arrows and randomly assigned participants to navigate either the same route (n = 22; control condition) or a variation of this route in which we surreptitiously introduced unfamiliar paths and landmarks (n = 22; spatial-anxiety condition). The manipulation successfully induced transient (i.e., state-level) spatial anxiety and task stress but did not significantly reduce task enjoyment. Our findings lay the foundation for an experimental paradigm that will facilitate future work on the causal effects of spatial anxiety in navigational contexts. The experimental task is freely available via the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/uq4v7/ ).

Motivation moderates gender differences in navigation performance

Gender differences in navigation performance are a recurrent and controversial topic. Previous research suggests that men outperform women in navigation tasks and that men and women exhibit different navigation strategies. Here, we investigate whether motivation to complete the task moderates the relationship between navigation performance and gender. Participants learned the locations of landmarks in a novel virtual city. During learning, participants could trigger a top-down map that depicted their current position and the locations of the landmarks. During testing, participants were divided into control and treatment groups and were not allowed to consult the map. All participants were given 16 minutes to navigate to the landmarks, but those in the treatment group were monetarily penalized for every second they spent completing the task. Results revealed a negative relationship between physiological arousal and the time required to locate the landmarks. In addition, gender differences in strategy were found during learning, with women spending more time with the map and taking 40% longer than men to locate the landmarks. Interestingly, an interaction between gender and treatment group revealed that women in the control group required more time than men and women in the treatment group to retrieve the landmarks. During testing, women in the control group also took more circuitous routes compared to men in the control group and women in the treatment group. These results suggest that a concurrent and relevant stressor can motivate women to perform similarly to men, helping to diminish pervasive gender differences found in the navigation literature.

Research on digital tool in cognitive assessment: a bibliometric analysis

Objective

The number of research into new cognitive assessment tools has increased rapidly in recent years, sparking great interest among professionals. However, there is still little literature revealing the current status and future trends of digital technology use in cognitive assessment. The aim of this study was to summarize the development of digital cognitive assessment tools through the bibliometric method.

Methods

We carried out a comprehensive search in the Web of Science Core Collection to identify relevant papers published in English between January 1, 2003, and April 3, 2023. We used the subjects such as "digital," "computer," and "cognitive," and finally 13,244 related publications were collected. Then we conducted the bibliometric analysis by Bibliometrix" R-package, VOSviewer and CiteSpace software, revealing the prominent countries, authors, institutions, and journals.

Results

11,045 articles and 2,199 reviews were included in our analyzes. The number of annual publications in this field was rising rapidly. The results showed that the most productive countries, authors and institutions were primarily located in economically developed regions, especially the North American, European, and Australian countries. Research cooperation tended to occur in these areas as well. The application of digital technology in cognitive assessment appealed to growing attention during the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Conclusion

Digital technology uses have had a great impact on cognitive assessment and health care. There have been substantial papers published in these areas in recent years. The findings of the study indicate the great potential of digital technology in cognitive assessment.

Cultural determinants of the gap between self-estimated navigation ability and wayfinding performance: evidence from 46 countries

Cognitive abilities can vary widely. Some people excel in certain skills, others struggle. However, not all those who describe themselves as gifted are. One possible influence on self-estimates is the surrounding culture. Some cultures may amplify self-assurance and others cultivate humility. Past research has shown that people in different countries can be grouped into a set of consistent cultural clusters with similar values and tendencies, such as attitudes to masculinity or individualism. Here we explored whether such cultural dimensions might relate to the extent to which populations in 46 countries overestimate or underestimate their cognitive abilities in the domain of spatial navigation. Using the Sea Hero Quest navigation test and a large sample (N = 383,187) we found cultural clusters of countries tend to be similar in how they self-rate ability relative to their actual performance. Across the world population sampled, higher self-ratings were associated with better performance. However, at the national level, higher self-ratings as a nation were not associated with better performance as a nation. Germanic and Near East countries were found to be most overconfident in their abilities and Nordic countries to be most under-confident in their abilities. Gender stereotypes may play a role in mediating this pattern, with larger national positive attitudes to male stereotyped roles (Hofstede's masculinity dimension) associated with a greater overconfidence in performance at the national level. We also replicate, with higher precision than prior studies, evidence that older men tend to overestimate their navigation skill more than other groups. These findings give insight into how culture and demographics may impact self-estimates of our abilities.

Accelerated Cognitive Decline Associated With Hearing Loss and Bilateral Vestibulopathy: Insights From a Prospective Cross-Sectional Study Using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status Adjusted for the Hearing Impaired in the DFNA9 Population

BACKGROUND

DeaFNess Autosomal dominant 9 (DFNA9) is a hereditary disorder known to affect both hearing and vestibular function in its carriers. Its phenotype is characterized by progressive sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and vestibular dysfunction evolving towards bilateral vestibulopathy (BV) by the 3rd to 5th life decade. Recent studies have identified the impact of hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction on cognitive functioning.

OBJECTIVE

The main objective of this study was to investigate how the cognitive functioning of carriers of the p.Pro51Ser variant in the COCH gene is affected by the disease and compare these results with a matched healthy control group.

STUDY DESIGN

Forty-six carriers of the pathogenic p.Pro51Ser variant in the COCH gene were included in this study, of which 38 met the Bárány Society criteria and were thus diagnosed with BV. All subjects were between the age of 22 and 72 years old. Each control was individually matched based on age, gender, and education level. A cognitive, vestibular, and hearing assessment was performed in all subjects. All participants completed the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, adjusted for the Hearing Impaired (RBANS-H), a cognitive test battery that includes subtests probing Immediate and Delayed Memory, Visuospatial/Constructional, Language, and Attention.

RESULTS

Overall, the DFNA9 patients demonstrated significantly lower scores on the Immediate Memory subscale and lower Total Scale scores than their healthy matched controls. The total sample was divided into two groups: age <55 years old and age ≥55 years old. The DFNA9 group aged ≥55 years old obtained significantly lower scores on the Attention subscale and lower Total Scale scores than their matched controls. Cognition of DFNA9 patients aged <55 years old no longer differed significantly from their matched controls.

CONCLUSION

This cross-sectional study found that DFNA9 patients demonstrated cognitive deficits in comparison with their healthy matched controls. The DFNA9 group aged ≥ 55 years old obtained significantly lower scores on the Total Scale and Attention subscale. This finding; however, was not observed for the age group younger than 55 years old. Further research is needed on the individual trajectory of SNHL and vestibular function, and how hearing rehabilitation affects cognitive functioning.

Entropy and a sub-group of geometric measures of paths predict the navigability of an environment

Despite extensive research on navigation, it remains unclear which features of an environment predict how difficult it will be to navigate. We analysed 478,170 trajectories from 10,626 participants who navigated 45 virtual environments in the research app-based game Sea Hero Quest. Virtual environments were designed to vary in a range of properties such as their layout, number of goals, visibility (varying fog) and map condition. We calculated 58 spatial measures grouped into four families: task-specific metrics, space syntax configurational metrics, space syntax geometric metrics, and general geometric metrics. We used Lasso, a variable selection method, to select the most predictive measures of navigation difficulty. Geometric features such as entropy, area of navigable space, number of rings and closeness centrality of path networks were among the most significant factors determining the navigational difficulty. By contrast a range of other measures did not predict difficulty, including measures of intelligibility. Unsurprisingly, other task-specific features (e.g. number of destinations) and fog also predicted navigation difficulty. These findings have implications for the study of spatial behaviour in ecological settings, as well as predicting human movements in different settings, such as complex buildings and transport networks and may aid the design of more navigable environments.

Landmark-dependent Navigation Strategy Declines across the Human Life-Span: Evidence from Over 37,000 Participants

Humans show a remarkable capacity to navigate various environments using different navigation strategies, and we know that strategy changes across the life span. However, this observation has been based on studies of small sample sizes. To this end, we used a mobile app-based video game (Sea Hero Quest) to test virtual navigation strategies and memory performance within a distinct radial arm maze level in over 37,000 participants. Players were presented with six pathways (three open and three closed) and were required to navigate to the three open pathways to collect a target. Next, all six pathways were made available and the player was required to visit the pathways that were previously unavailable. Both reference memory and working memory errors were calculated. Crucially, at the end of the level, the player was asked a multiple-choice question about how they found the targets (i.e., a counting-dependent strategy vs. a landmark-dependent strategy). As predicted from previous laboratory studies, we found the use of landmarks declined linearly with age. Those using landmark-based strategies also performed better on reference memory than those using a counting-based strategy. These results extend previous observations in the laboratory showing a decreased use of landmark-dependent strategies with age.

Machine Learning and Eye Movements Give Insights into Neurodegenerative Disease Mechanisms

Humans are a vision-dominated species; what we perceive depends on where we look. Therefore, eye movements (EMs) are essential to our interactions with the environment, and experimental findings show EMs are affected in neurodegenerative disorders (ND). This could be a reason for some cognitive and movement disorders in ND. Therefore, we aim to establish whether changes in EM-evoked responses can tell us about the progression of ND, such as Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's diseases (PD), in different stages. In the present review, we have analyzed the results of psychological, neurological, and EM (saccades, antisaccades, pursuit) tests to predict disease progression with machine learning (ML) methods. Thanks to ML algorithms, from the high-dimensional parameter space, we were able to find significant EM changes related to ND symptoms that gave us insights into ND mechanisms. The predictive algorithms described use various approaches, including granular computing, Naive Bayes, Decision Trees/Tables, logistic regression, C-/Linear SVC, KNC, and Random Forest. We demonstrated that EM is a robust biomarker for assessing symptom progression in PD and AD. There are navigation problems in 3D space in both diseases. Consequently, we investigated EM experiments in the virtual space and how they may help find neurodegeneration-related brain changes, e.g., related to place or/and orientation problems. In conclusion, EM parameters with clinical symptoms are powerful precision instruments that, in addition to their potential for predictions of ND progression with the help of ML, could be used to indicate the different preclinical stages of both diseases.

Wayfinding and path integration deficits detected using a virtual reality mobile app in patients with traumatic brain injury

The ability to navigate is supported by a wide network of brain areas which are particularly vulnerable to disruption brain injury, including traumatic brain injury (TBI). Wayfinding and the ability to orient back to the direction you have recently come (path integration) may likely be impacted in daily life but have so far not been tested with patients with TBI. Here, we assessed spatial navigation in thirty-eight participants, fifteen of whom had a history of TBI, and twenty-three control participants. Self-estimated spatial navigation ability was assessed using the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction (SBSOD) scale. No significant difference between TBI patients and a control group was identified. Rather, results indicated that both participant groups demonstrated 'good' self-inferred spatial navigational ability on the SBSOD scale. Objective navigation ability was tested via the virtual mobile app test Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), which has been shown to predict real-world navigation difficulties and assesses (a) wayfinding across several environments and (b) path integration. Compared to a sub-sample of 13 control participants, a matched subsample of 10 TBI patients demonstrated generally poorer performance on all wayfinding environments tested. Further analysis revealed that TBI participants consistently spent a shorter duration viewing a map prior to navigating to goals. Patients showed mixed performance on the path integration task, with poor performance evident when proximal cues were absent. Our results provide preliminary evidence that TBI impacts both wayfinding and, to some extent, path integration. The findings suggest long-lasting clinical difficulties experienced in TBI patients affect both wayfinding and to some degree path integration ability.

Building a Cognitive Science of Human Variation: Individual Differences in Spatial Navigation

The aim of this issue is to take stock of cognitive science of human variation in the field of spatial navigation, an important domain in which debates have often assumed an invariant human mind. Addressing the challenge of individual differences requires cognitive scientists to change their practices in several ways. First, we need to consider how to design measures and paradigms that have adequate psychometric characteristics. Second, using reliable, efficient, and valid measures, we need to examine how people vary from time to time, both in the short run due to emotions, such as stress or time pressure, and in the longer run, due to training or living in physical environments that require wayfinding skills. Third, we need to study people different from the traditional college participants, including variations in age, gender, education, culture, physical environment, and possible interactions among these variables.

Studying the Development of Navigation Using Virtual Environments

Research on spatial navigation is essential to understanding how mobile species adapt to their environments. Such research increasingly uses virtual environments (VEs) because, although VE has drawbacks, it allows for standardization of procedures, precision in measuring behaviors, ease in introducing variation, and cross-investigator comparability. Developmental researchers have used a wide range of VE testing methods, including desktop computers, gaming consoles, virtual reality, and phone applications. We survey the paradigms to guide researchers' choices, organizing them by their characteristics using a framework proposed by Girard (2022) in which navigation is reactive or deliberative, and may be tied to sensory input or not. This organization highlights what representations each paradigm indicates. VE tools have enriched our picture of the development of navigation, but much research remains to be done, e.g., determining retest reliability, comparing performance on different paradigms, validating performance against real-world behavior and open sharing. Reliable and valid assessments available on open-science repositories are essential for work on the development of navigation, its neural bases, and its implications for other cognitive domains.

Data science for pedestrian and high street retailing as a framework for advancing urban informatics to individual scales

Background

In this paper, we consider the applicability of the customer journey framework from retailing as a driver for urban informatics at individual scales within urban science. The customer journey considers shopper experiences in the context of shopping paths, retail service spaces, and touch-points that draw them into contact. Around this framework, retailers have developed sophisticated data science for observation, identification, and measurement of customers in the context of their shopping behavior. This knowledge supports broad data-driven understanding of customer experiences in physical spaces, economic spaces of decision and choice, persuasive spaces of advertising and branding, and inter-personal spaces of customer-staff interaction.

Method

We review the literature on pedestrian and high street retailing, and on urban informatics. We investigate whether the customer journey could be usefully repurposed for urban applications. Specifically, we explore the potential use of the customer journey framework for producing new insight into pedestrian behavior, where a sort of empirical hyperopia has long abounded because data are always in short supply.

Results

Our review addresses how the customer journey might be used as a structure for examining how urban walkers come into contact with the built environment, how people actively and passively sense and perceive ambient city life as they move, how pedestrians make sense of urban context, and how they use this knowledge to build cognition of city streetscapes. Each of these topics has relevance to walking studies specifically, but also to urban science more generally. We consider how retailing might reciprocally benefit from urban science perspectives, especially in extending the reach of retailers' insight beyond store walls, into the retail high streets from which they draw custom.

Conclusion

We conclude that a broad set of theoretical frameworks, data collection schemes, and analytical methodologies that have advanced retail data science closer and closer to individual-level acumen might be usefully applied to accomplish the same in urban informatics. However, we caution that differences between retailers' and urban scientists' viewpoints on privacy presents potential controversy.

Predicting real world spatial disorientation in Alzheimer's disease patients using virtual reality navigation tests

Spatial navigation impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been suggested to underlie patients experiencing spatial disorientation. Though many studies have highlighted navigation impairments for AD patients in virtual reality (VR) environments, the extent to which these impairments predict a patient's risk for spatial disorientation in the real world is still poorly understood. The aims of this study were to (a) investigate the spatial navigation abilities of AD patients in VR environments as well as in a real world community setting and (b) explore whether we could predict patients at a high risk for spatial disorientation in the community based on their VR navigation. Sixteen community-dwelling AD patients and 21 age/gender matched controls were assessed on their egocentric and allocentric navigation abilities in VR environments using the Virtual Supermarket Test (VST) and Sea Hero Quest (SHQ) as well as in the community using the Detour Navigation Test (DNT). When compared to controls, AD patients exhibited impairments on the VST, SHQ, and DNT. For patients, only SHQ wayfinding distance and wayfinding duration significantly predicted composite disorientation score on the DNT (β = 0.422, p = 0.034, R² = 0.299 and β = 0.357, p = 0.046, R² = 0.27 respectively). However, these same VR measures could not reliably predict which patients were at highest risk of spatial disorientation in the community (p > 0.1). Future studies should focus on developing VR-based tests which can predict AD patients at high risk of getting spatially disorientated in the real world.

Novel 3-D action video game mechanics reveal differentiable cognitive constructs in young players, but not in old

Video game research predominantly uses a “one game-one function” approach—researchers deploy a constellation of task-like minigames to span multiple domains or consider a complex video game to essentially represent one cognitive construct. To profile cognitive functioning in a more ecologically valid setting, we developed a novel 3-D action shooter video game explicitly designed to engage multiple cognitive domains. We compared gameplay data with results from a web-based cognitive battery (WebCNP) for 158 participants (aged 18–74). There were significant negative main effects on game performance from age and gender, even when controlling for prior video game exposure. Among younger players, game mechanics displayed significant and unique correlations to cognitive constructs such as aim accuracy with attention and stealth with abstract thinking within the same session. Among older players the relation between game components and cognitive domains was unclear. Findings suggest that while game mechanics within a single game can be deconstructed to correspond to existing cognitive metrics, how game mechanics are understood and utilized likely differs between the young and old. We argue that while complex games can be utilized to measure distinct cognitive functions, the translation scheme of gameplay to cognitive function should not be one-size-fits-all across all demographics.

Thalamo-hippocampal pathway regulates incidental memory capacity in mice

Incidental memory can be challenged by increasing either the retention delay or the memory load. The dorsal hippocampus (dHP) appears to help with both consolidation from short-term (STM) to long-term memory (LTM), and higher memory loads, but the mechanism is not fully understood. Here we find that female mice, despite having the same STM capacity of 6 objects and higher resistance to distraction in our different object recognition task (DOT), when tested over 1 h or 24 h delays appear to transfer to LTM only 4 objects, whereas male mice have an STM capacity of 6 objects in this task. In male mice the dHP shows greater activation (as measured by c-Fos expression), whereas female mice show greater activation of the ventral midline thalamus (VMT). Optogenetic inhibition of the VMT-dHP pathway during off-line memory consolidation enables 6-object LTM retention in females, while chemogenetic VMT-activation impairs it in males. Thus, removing or enhancing sub-cortical inhibitory control over the hippocampus leads to differences in incidental memory.

Incidental memory is affected by retention delay, and by memory load. Here the authors show that female and male mice process high memory load through different activation of thalamic-cortical pathways, that makes their incidental memory resistant to distraction and to memory decay, respectively.

Redesigning navigational aids using virtual global landmarks to improve spatial knowledge retrieval

Although beacon- and map-based spatial strategies are the default strategies for navigation activities, today's navigational aids mostly follow a beacon-based design where one is provided with turn-by-turn instructions. Recent research, however, shows that our reliance on these navigational aids is causing a decline in our spatial skills. We are processing less of our surrounding environment and relying too heavily on the instructions given. To reverse this decline, we need to engage more in map-based learning, which encourages the user to process and integrate spatial knowledge into a cognitive map built to benefit flexible and independent spatial navigation behaviour. In an attempt to curb our loss of skills, we proposed a navigation assistant to support map-based learning during active navigation. Called the virtual global landmark (VGL) system, this augmented reality (AR) system is based on the kinds of techniques used in traditional orienteering. Specifically, a notable landmark is always present in the user's sight, allowing the user to continuously compute where they are in relation to that specific location. The efficacy of the unit as a navigational aid was tested in an experiment with 27 students from the University of Technology Sydney via a comparison of brain dynamics and behaviour. From an analysis of behaviour and event-related spectral perturbation, we found that participants were encouraged to process more spatial information with a map-based strategy where a silhouette of the compass-like landmark was perpetually in view. As a result of this technique, they consistently navigated with greater efficiency and better accuracy.

Two Immersive Virtual Reality Tasks for the Assessment of Spatial Orientation in Older Adults with and Without Cognitive Impairment: Concurrent Validity, Group Comparison, and Accuracy Results

OBJECTIVE

Spatial disorientation is common in Alzheimer's disease (AD), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and preclinical individuals with AD biomarkers. However, traditional neuropsychological tests lack ecological validity for the assessment of spatial orientation and to date, there is still no gold standard. The current study aimed to determine the validity and accuracy of two virtual reality tasks for the assessment of spatial orientation.

METHODS

We adapted two spatial orientation tasks to immersive virtual environments: a "survey to route" task in which participants had to transfer information from a map to their body position within a maze [Spatial Orientation in Immersive Virtual Environment Test (SOIVET) Maze], and an allocentric-type, route learning task, with well-established topographic landmarks (SOIVET Route). A total of 19 MCI patients and 29 cognitively healthy older adults aged 61-92 participated in this study. Regular neuropsychological assessments were used for correlation analysis and participant performances were compared between groups. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed for accuracy.

RESULTS

The SOIVET Maze correlated with measures of visuoperception, mental rotation, and planning, and was not related to age, educational level, or technology use profile. The SOIVET Route immediate correlated with measures of mental rotation, memory, and visuoconstruction, and was influenced only by education. Both tasks significantly differentiated MCI and control groups, and demonstrated moderate accuracy for the MCI diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

Traditional neuropsychological assessment presents limitations and immersive environments allow for the reproduction of complex cognitive processes. The two immersive virtual reality tasks are valid tools for the assessment of spatial orientation and should be considered for cognitive assessments of older adults.

Entropy of city street networks linked to future spatial navigation ability

The cultural and geographical properties of the environment have been shown to deeply influence cognition and mental health^1-6. Living near green spaces has been found to be strongly beneficial^7-11, and urban residence has been associated with a higher risk of some psychiatric disorders^12-14-although some studies suggest that dense socioeconomic networks found in larger cities provide a buffer against depression¹⁵. However, how the environment in which one grew up affects later cognitive abilities remains poorly understood. Here we used a cognitive task embedded in a video game¹⁶ to measure non-verbal spatial navigation ability in 397,162 people from 38 countries across the world. Overall, we found that people who grew up outside cities were better at navigation. More specifically, people were better at navigating in environments that were topologically similar to where they grew up. Growing up in cities with a low street network entropy (for example, Chicago) led to better results at video game levels with a regular layout, whereas growing up outside cities or in cities with a higher street network entropy (for example, Prague) led to better results at more entropic video game levels. This provides evidence of the effect of the environment on human cognition on a global scale, and highlights the importance of urban design in human cognition and brain function.

London taxi drivers: A review of neurocognitive studies and an exploration of how they build their cognitive map of London

Licensed London taxi drivers have been found to show changes in the gray matter density of their hippocampus over the course of training and decades of navigation in London (UK). This has been linked to their learning and using of the "Knowledge of London," the names and layout of over 26,000 streets and thousands of points of interest in London. Here we review past behavioral and neuroimaging studies of London taxi drivers, covering the structural differences in hippocampal gray matter density and brain dynamics associated with navigating London. We examine the process by which they learn the layout of London, detailing the key learning steps: systematic study of maps, travel on selected overlapping routes, the mental visualization of places and the optimal use of subgoals. Our analysis provides the first map of the street network covered by the routes used to learn the network, allowing insight into where there are gaps in this network. The methods described could be widely applied to aid spatial learning in the general population and may provide insights for artificial intelligence systems to efficiently learn new environments.

Path integration in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease

In this review we discuss converging evidence from human and rodent research demonstrating how path integration (PI) is impaired in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and point to the neural mechanisms that underlie these deficits. Importantly, we highlight that (i) the grid cell network in the entorhinal cortex is crucial for PI in both humans and rodents, (ii) PI deficits are present in healthy aging and are significantly more pronounced in patients with early-stage AD, (iii) compromised entorhinal grid cell computations in healthy older adults and in young adults at risk of AD are linked to PI deficits, and (iv) PI and grid cell deficits may serve as sensitive markers for pathological decline in early AD.

Performance in Real World- and Virtual Reality-Based Spatial Navigation Tasks in Patients With Vestibular Dysfunction

OBJECTIVE

This study evaluated whether vestibular dysfunction is associated with reduced spatial navigation performance.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Otolaryngology Clinic in the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center and an analogous virtual reality (VR) environment.

PATIENTS

Eligible patients had diagnosis of unilateral or bilateral vestibular loss. Matched healthy controls were recruited at 1:1 ratio.

INTERVENTIONS

The navigation task involved a route-based or place-based strategy in both real world and VR environments.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Navigation performance was measured by distance travelled relative to optimal distance (i.e., path ratio) and the Judgments of Relative Direction (JRD) task, whereby participants had to recall relative angular distances between landmarks.

RESULTS

The study sample included 20 patients with vestibular loss (mean age: 61 yrs, SD: 10.2 yrs) and 20 matched controls (mean age: 60 yrs, SD: 10.4 yrs). Patients with vestibular loss travelled significantly greater distance using both route-based (path ratio 1.3 vs. 1.0, p = 0.02) and place-based (path ratio 2.6 vs. 2.0, p = 0.03) strategies in the real world. Overall, participants performed worse in virtual reality compared to real world in both path ratio (2.2 vs. 1.7; p = 0.04) and JRD error (78° vs. 67°; p < 0.01). Furthermore, while controls exhibited significant positive correlations between real world and VR performance in place-based (β = 0.75; p < 0.001) and JRD tasks (β = 0.70; p < 0.001), patients with vestibular loss exhibited no similar correlations.

CONCLUSIONS

The vestibular system appears to play a role in navigation ability during both actual and virtual navigation, suggesting a role for static vestibular signals in navigation performance.

Short Digital Spatial Memory Test Detects Impairment in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment

BACKGROUND

Impairment in navigation abilities and object location memory are often seen in early-stage Alzheimer's Disease (AD), yet these constructs are not included in standard neuropsychological assessment. We investigated the differential ability of a short digital spatial memory test in mild AD dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

METHODS

21 patients with AD dementia (66.9 ± 6.9; 47% female), 22 patients with MCI (69.6 ± 8.3; 46% female) and 21 patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) (62.2 ± 8.9; 48% female) from the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort performed the Object Location Memory Test (OLMT), consisting of a visual perception and memory trial, and the Virtual Tübingen (VT) test, consisting of a scene recognition, route continuation, route ordering and distance comparison task. The correlations with other cognitive domains were examined.

RESULTS

Patients with mild AD dementia (Z: -2.51 ± 1.15) and MCI (Z: -1.81 ± 0.92) performed worse than participants with SCD (Z: 0.0 ± 1.0) on the OLMT. Scene recognition and route continuation were equally impaired in patients with AD dementia (Z: -1.14 ± 0.73; Z: -1.44 ± 1.13) and MCI (Z: -1.37 ± 1.25; Z: -1.21 ± 1.07). Route ordering was only impaired in patients with MCI (Z: -0.82 ± 0.78). Weak to moderate correlations were found between route continuation and memory (r(64) = 0.40, p < 0.01), and between route ordering and attention (r(64) = 0.33, p < 0.01), but not for the OLMT.

CONCLUSION

A short digital spatial memory test battery was able to detect object location memory and navigation impairment in patients with mild AD dementia and MCI, highlighting the value of incorporating such a test battery in standard neuropsychological assessment.

Vector-based pedestrian navigation in cities

How do pedestrians choose their paths within city street networks? Researchers have tried to shed light on this matter through strictly controlled experiments, but an ultimate answer based on real-world mobility data is still lacking. Here, we analyze salient features of human path planning through a statistical analysis of a massive dataset of GPS traces, which reveals that (1) people increasingly deviate from the shortest path when the distance between origin and destination increases and (2) chosen paths are statistically different when origin and destination are swapped. We posit that direction to goal is a main driver of path planning and develop a vector-based navigation model; the resulting trajectories, which we have termed pointiest paths, are a statistically better predictor of human paths than a model based on minimizing distance with stochastic effects. Our findings generalize across two major US cities with different street networks, hinting to the fact that vector-based navigation might be a universal property of human path planning.

Overcoming navigational challenges: A novel approach to the study and assessment of topographical orientation

Several studies investigating environmental navigation require participants to navigate in virtual environments, in which the proprioceptive and vestibular components present during real environmental navigation are lost. Here, we aimed to provide a novel computerized ecological navigational battery, investigating whether the absence of proprioceptive and vestibular inputs yields a representation of the navigational space comparable to that acquired ecologically. In Study 1, 38 participants underwent two sets of tasks, one performed in a laboratory-based setting (LBS) and the other in an ecological environment (EE), with both including evaluation of route, landmark, and survey knowledge and a landmark ordering task. All tasks, except the route task, significantly correlated between EE and LBS. In LBS, performance in the landmark ordering task was predicted by that in the survey task, but not by those in the route and landmark tasks. Results of Study 1 were replicated in Study 2, in which 44 participants completed a modified and shorter online version of LBS tests. Reliability of the online LBS tests was also tested and showed a moderate-to-high internal consistency. Overall, results show that the conditions in which tasks are performed affect the acquisition of route knowledge, likely due to the lack of proprioceptive and vestibular information in LBS. However, LBS tasks presented here provide a standard battery of tests that can overcome the replicability problems encountered by ecological navigation tests, while taking into consideration all the complexities of navigational processes in terms of the use of landmark, route, and survey strategies.