How age-related strategy switching deficits affect wayfinding in complex environments

Autor: Mathew A. Harris, Thomas Wolbers
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Male
Aging
BEHAVIORAL FLEXIBILITY
Virtual reality
Task (project management)
Norepinephrine
physiopathology [Nerve Net]
psychology [Aging]
physiopathology [Prefrontal Cortex]
Young adult
Prefrontal cortex
Strategy switching
physiology [Spatial Behavior]
Route learning
MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX
General Neuroscience
physiology [Space Perception]
MONTREAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT
Shortcutting
IMPAIRMENT
Middle Aged
physiology [Aging]
ATROPHY RATES
Navigation
physiology [Norepinephrine]
CAUDATE-NUCLEUS
Female
Psychology
Cognitive psychology
Adult
Adolescent
Prefrontal Cortex
Spatial Behavior
Affect (psychology)
Young Adult
physiology [Maze Learning]
Age related
Path integration
Humans
ddc:610
ENTORHINAL CORTEX
Maze Learning
SPATIAL MEMORY
Aged
Age differences
PATH-INTEGRATION
Space Perception
HIPPOCAMPUS
Neurology (clinical)
Geriatrics and Gerontology
Nerve Net
Developmental Biology
Zdroj: Harris, M A & Wolbers, T 2014, ' How age-related strategy switching deficits affect wayfinding in complex environments ', Neurobiology of Aging, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 1095-1102 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.10.086
Neurobiology of aging 35(5), 1095-1102 (2014). doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.10.086
ISSN: 1558-1497
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.10.086
Popis: Although most research on navigation in aging focuses on allocentric processing deficits, impaired strategy switching may also contribute to navigational decline. Using a specifically designed task involving navigating a town-like virtual environment, we assessed the ability of young and old participants to switch from following learned routes to finding novel shortcuts. We found large age differences in the length of routes taken during testing and in use of shortcuts, as, while nearly all young participants switched from the egocentric route-following strategy to the allocentric wayfinding strategy, none of the older participants stably switched. Although secondary tasks confirmed that older participants were impaired both at strategy switching and allocentric processing, the difficulty in using shortcuts was selectively related to impaired strategy switching. This may in turn relate to dysfunction of the prefrontal-noradrenergic network responsible for coordinating switching behavior. We conclude that the large age difference in performance at the shortcutting task demonstrates for the first time, how strategy switching deficits can have a severe impact on navigation in aging. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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