Correlates of virtual navigation performance in older adults

NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING

卷:39

Article

Korthauer, Laura E.¹  Nowak, Nicole T.¹  Moffat, Scott D.²  An, Yang³  Rowland, Laura M.⁴  Barker, Peter B.⁵  Resnick, Susan M.³  Driscoll, Ira^1,3 

[1] Univ Wisconsin, Dept Psychol, 2441 E Hartford Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53211 USA

[2] Georgia Inst Technol, Sch Psychol, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA

[3] NIA, NIH, Baltimore, MD 21224 USA

[4] Univ Maryland, Dept Psychiat, Maryland Psychiat Res Ctr, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA

[5] Johns Hopkins Univ, Sch Med, Russell H Morgan Dept Radiol & Radiol Sci, Baltimore, MD USA

关键词: Normal aging;    Place learning;    Memory;    Virtual navigation;    Hippocampus;    DTI;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2015.12.003

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Despite considerable evidence for deleterious effects of aging on place learning and memory, less is known about the trajectory and the putative neural mechanisms of these decrements. The virtual Morris water task (vMWT) is a human analog of a nonhuman spatial navigation task. The present study investigated longitudinal changes in place learning in 51 healthy, nondemented adults (age 30-83 years) who completed the vMWT and a neuropsychological battery at 2 time-points (interval = similar to 8 years). We also assessed cross-sectional associations between vMWT and brain structure, biochemical integrity, and standardized neuropsychological measures in a subset of 22 individuals who underwent magnetic resonance imaging at follow-up. Despite no longitudinal decrement in vMWT performance, there were cross-sectional age differences on the vMWT favoring younger adults. Negative associations were observed between vMWT latency and gray matter volumes in the right hippocampus, bilateral thalamus, and right medial orbitofrontal cortex and between vMWT latency and white matter fractional anisotropy in the bilateral uncinate fasciculus. Collectively, these results suggest a pattern of differences in the structural integrity of regions supporting successful navigation even in the absence of longitudinal performance decrements. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free