Does Hearing Impairment Impact Spatial Orientation, Navigation, and Rotation Abilities?

In this study, a self-report measure of spatial ability, the Spatial Ability Self-Report Scale (SASRS), was developed to evaluate undergraduates’ spatial abilities. A total of 362 undergraduates from a government university in central Turkey participated. Exploratory factor analysis with promax oblique rotation revealed three factors: Object Manipulation Spatial Ability (OMSA), Spatial Navigational Ability (SNA), and Visual Memory (VM). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that these factors constituted a model-with good fit. A concurrent validity study using the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) demonstrated significant correlations between OMSA and the overall scale. However, the correlations between MRT and SNA and MRT and VM were not significant. The item analysis, internal consistency and test–retest reliability findings suggested that the eighteen items on the SASRS have a three-factor structure and that the scale is valid and reliable.

Spatial navigation forms one of the core components of an animal’s behavioural repertoire. Good navigational skills boost survival by allowing one to avoid predators, to search successfully for food in an unpredictable world, and to be able to find a mating partner. As a consequence, the brain has dedicated many of its resources to the processing of spatial information. Decades of seminal work has revealed how the brain is able to form detailed representations of one’s current position, and use an internal cognitive map of the environment to traverse the local space. However, what is much less understood is how neural computations of position depend on distance information of salient external locations such as landmarks, and how these distal places are encoded in the brain. The work in this thesis explores the role of one brain region in particular, the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), as a key area to implement distance computations in relation to distal landmarks. Previous research has shown that damage to the RSC results in losses of spatial memory and navigation ability, but its exact role in spatial cognition remains unclear. Initial electrophysiological recordings of single cells in the RSC during free exploration behaviour of the animal resulted in the discovery of a new population of neurons that robustly encode distance information towards nearby walls throughout the environment. Activity of these border cells was characterized by high firing rates near all boundaries of the arena that were available to the animal, and sensory manipulation experiments revealed that this activity persisted in the absence of direct visual or somatosensory detection of the wall. It quickly became apparent that border cell activity was not only modulated by the distance to walls, but was contingent on the direction the animal was facing relative to the boundary. Approximately 40% of neurons displayed significant selectivity to the direction of walls, mostly in the hemifield contra-lateral to the recorded hemisphere, such that a neuron in left RSC is active whenever a wall occupies proximal space on the right side of the animal. Using a cue-rotation paradigm, experiments initially showed that this egocentric direction information was invariant to the physical rotation of the arena. Yet this rotation elicited a corresponding shift in the preferred direction of local head-direction cells, as well as a rotation in the firing fields of spatially-tuned cells in RSC. As a consequence, position and direction encoding in RSC must be bound together, rotating in unison during the environmental manipulations, as information about allocentric boundary locations is integrated with head-direction signals to form egocentric border representations. It is known that the RSC forms many anatomical connections with other parts of the brain that encode spatial information, like the hippocampus and para-hippocampal areas. The next step was to establish the circuit mechanisms in place for RSC neurons to generate their activity in respect to the distance and direction of walls. A series of inactivation experiments revealed how RSC activity is inter-dependent with one of its communication partners, the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC). Together they form a wider functional network that encodes precise spatial information of borders, with information flowing from the MEC to RSC but not vice versa. While the conjunction between distance and heading direction relative to the outer walls was the main driver of neural activity in RSC, border cells displayed further behavioural correlates related to movement trajectories. Spiking activity in either hemisphere tended to precede turning behaviour on a short time-scale in a way that border cells in the right RSC anticipated right-way turns ~300 ms into the future. The interpretation of these results is that the RSC’s primary role in spatial cognition is not necessarily on the early sensory processing stage as suggested by previous studies. Instead, it is involved in computations related to the generation of motion plans, using spatial information that is processed in other brain areas to plan and execute future actions. One potential function of the RSC’s role in this process could be to act correctly in relation to the nearby perimeter, such that border cells in one hemisphere are involved in the encoding of walls in the contralateral hemifield, after which the animal makes an ipsilateral turn to avoid collision. Together this supports the idea that the MEC→RSC pathway links the encoding of space and position in the hippocampal system with the brain’s motor action systems, allowing animals to use walls as prominent landmarks to navigate the room.

Spatial navigation abilities are frequently impaired in neurological disorders and they also decline with normal aging. Researchers and clinicians therefore need valid and easy-to-use spatial navigation assessment tools to study the impact of different neuropathologies and prevent relevant cognitive impairments from going undetected. However, current experimental paradigms rarely address which cognitive processes they recruit, often have resource-intensive setups, and usually require active navigation, e.g., using a joystick or keyboard, thus confounding cognitive performance with fine motor skills. Yet, for clinical feasibility, time-efficient paradigms are needed that are informative and easy to administer in participants with limited technical experience and diverging impairments. Here, we introduce the virtual environments navigation assessment (VIENNA), a virtual adaptation of a brief, standardized, and intuitive spatial navigation paradigm (https://osf.io/kp4c5/). VIENNA is designed to assess spatial navigation without episodic memory demands, requires no interface device, and takes about 16 min to complete. We evaluated VIENNA in 79 healthy middle-aged to older participants (50–85 years) and provide evidence for its feasibility and construct validity. Tests of visuospatial and executive functions, but not episodic memory or selective attention, were identified as cognitive correlates of VIENNA, even when controlling for participant age and overall cognitive performance. Furthermore, VIENNA scores correlated with subjective navigation ability and age, but not with depressiveness, cognitive complaints, or education. The straightforward administration of VIENNA allows for its integration into routine neuropsychological assessments and enables differentiated evaluation of spatial navigation performance in patients with motor impairments and episodic memory deficits.

The global population of individuals aged 65 and over is projected to nearly double by 2050, reaching 1.6 billion. This demographic shift is expected to drive a significant increase in dementia cases, with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) accounting for 60-80% of these cases. While episodic memory loss is a hallmark of AD, spatial disorientation is often one of the earliest symptoms (Coughlan et al. 2018).This meta-analysis investigates the differences in spatial navigation performance between cognitively healthy older adults and those with AD. The effect size is measured using Hedge’s g. The analysis considers various moderators, including the mode of test administration (real-world, virtual reality, computer screen), the type of measure (time, accuracy), and the nature of the task (maze navigation, environmental navigation), alongside basic study characteristics such as publication year, study location, participant age, gender, and education.The analysis includes 124 effect sizes from 42 studies, involving 2409 participants, of which 941 were diagnosed with AD and 1468 were cognitively healthy older adults. The results show that cognitively healthy older adults have significantly better navigation abilities (p < 0.05) compared to those with AD, as indicated by a standardized mean difference (SMD) of 1.97.This study shows a significant decline in spatial navigation abilities in individuals with AD compared to healthy older adults, consistent across various test methods and tasks. Addressing these deficits is vital to reduce the growing impact of dementia.

In subterranean species where excavation is energetically expensive, efficient spatial navigation is vital to reducing the costs of locating important resources such as food and mates. While spatial navigational ability is positively correlated with sociality in subterranean mammals, we have a less clear understanding of the role of habitat complexity on navigational ability. We tested spatial navigational ability and memory in 12-18-month captive Natal mole-rats (Cryptomys hottentotus natalensis) maintained in a simple environment with no environmental enrichment and newly captured wild individuals from natural, complex burrow systems. In maze trials, mole-rats captured freshly from the wild made significantly fewer navigational errors, were more likely to successfully navigate the maze, travelled shorter distances and as a consequence, completed the maze in less time. Male mole-rats from both experimental treatments were more likely to complete the maze than females. Memory retention of the maze was tested on day two, seven, 30 and 60, respectively. The results were variable, although both groups showed a significant memory retention 60 days after testing. Our results highlight the potential importance of the environment (microhabitat complexity) on spatial cognitive performance in mole-rats.

Subtle changes in objective spatial navigation ability have been observed in the preclinical stage of Alzheimer disease (AD) cross-sectionally and have been found to predict clinical progression. However, longitudinal change in self-reported spatial navigation ability in preclinical AD has yet to be examined. The current study examined whether AD biomarkers suggestive of preclinical AD at baseline spatial navigation assessment and APOE genotype predicted decline in self-reported spatial navigation ability and whether APOE genotype moderated the association of AD biomarkers with change in self-reported spatial navigation. Clinically normal (Clinical Dementia Rating Scale=0) adults aged 56 to 90 completed the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale (SBSOD) annually for an average of 2.73 years. Biomarker data was collected within +/-2 years of baseline (ie, cerebrospinal fluid Aβ42, p-tau181, p-tau181/Aβ42 ratio, positron emission tomography imaging with Florbetapir or Pittsburgh Compound-B, and hippocampal volume). APOE genotyping was obtained for all participants. SBSOD demonstrated a nonsignificant trend toward a decline over time (P=0.082). AD biomarkers did not predict change in self-reported spatial navigation (all Ps>0.163). APOE genotype did not moderate the relationship between AD biomarkers and self-reported spatial navigation in planned analyses (all Ps>0.222). Results suggest that self-reported spatial navigation ability, as estimated with the SBSOD, may be limited as a measure of subtle cognitive change in the preclinical stage of AD.

The Western diet is rich in saturated fats and refined sugars. Overconsumption of this diet can lead to obesity, metabolic and cardiovascular disease, as well as certain types of cancers. Evidence suggests that this diet also has adverse effects on cognitive function. Regular consumption of fats and sugars is associated with faster rates of age-related cognitive decline in middle age and older adults. Experimental studies using rodent models show that diets high in fats and sugars can impair brain functions, particularly in the hippocampus, affecting spatial learning and memory. The current study tested the relationship between diet and spatial navigation ability in people using a virtual reality maze. Accurate performance in the maze requires participants to estimate distance and direction information to track self-referential positioning and remember landmark locations. We found that young adults who frequently consumed foods high in fat and sugar were worse at remembering the location of a treasure chest in the virtual maze. Critically, this relationship remained after controlling for body mass index and performance on a non-spatial task. The results highlight the impact of diet beyond traditional indicators of physical health, and reveal the specificity of the association between diet and spatial ability. These findings are consistent with those from animal studies and are the first to reveal the adverse effect of diet on spatial learning and memory in a task that requires navigation in three-dimensional space. The results confirm the importance of making healthy dietary choices for cognitive health.

Spatial navigation and dual-task performance in patients with Dementia that present partial dependence in instrumental activity of daily living

This study investigated prospective social studies teachers’ spatial abilities. It was conducted with 234 prospective teachers attending Social Studies Teaching departments at Education Faculties of two universities in Central and Southern Anatolia. This study, designed according to the explanatory-sequential design, is a mixed research method, involving two stages. The first stage was conducted in the causal-comparative research design. The data were collected using “Mental Rotation Test” and “Surface Development Test”. Descriptive statistics, MANOVA and ANOVA were used to analyze the data. The second stage was designed as a case study. “Opinion Form for Spatial Ability Tests” was used to elicit the views of 37 prospective teachers (F:20, M:17) identified via the purposive sampling method. The qualitative data obtained were analyzed using the content analysis technique. The study results showed that spatial visualization and mental rotation abilities of the prospective teachers were low; male prospective teachers were betterqualified than female ones in mental rotation but spatial visualization ability did not vary by gender. Moreover, prospective teachers with higher academic averages had better spatial abilities. Integrating virtual environment applications such as Google Earth etc. into social studies courses and using them in these courses can help to improve prospective teachers’ spatial abilities.

Exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), such as bisphenol A (BPA), may cause adverse health effects in wildlife and humans, but controversy remains as to what traits are most sensitive to EDCs and might serve as barometers of exposure. Expression of sexually selected traits that have evolved through intrasexual competition for mates and intersexual choice of mating partner are more dependent on developmental and physical condition of an animal than naturally selected traits and thus might be particularly vulnerable to disruption by developmental exposure to EDCs. We have used the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) as a model to test this hypothesis. Adult male-male competition for mates in this species is supported by enhanced spatial navigational and exploratory abilities, which enable males to search for prospective, widely dispersed females. Male deer mice exposed to BPA or ethinyl estradiol (EE) through maternal diet showed no changes in external phenotype, sensory development, or adult circulating concentrations of testosterone and corticosterone, but spatial learning abilities and exploratory behaviors were severely compromised compared with control males. Because these traits are not sexually selected in females, BPA exposure predictably had no effect, although EE-exposed females demonstrated enhanced spatial navigational abilities. Both BPA-exposed and control females preferred control males to BPA-exposed males. Our demonstration that developmental exposure to BPA compromises cognitive abilities and behaviors essential for males to reproduce successfully has broad implications for other species, including our own. Thus, sexually selected traits might provide useful biomarkers to assess risk of environmental contamination in animal and human populations.

Sex differences in spatial learning and prefrontal and parietal cortical dendritic morphology in the meadow vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus

Subjective measures of cognitive abilities are often used in various environments, such as clinical, experimental, and professional settings. Here, we assess the quality of such measures, specifically looking into the impact of age and gender. Spatial navigation ability will be used as an exemplary case, given its large individual variation and relevance to the healthy aging process. With a navigation experiment and a self-report questionnaire, the objective and subjective navigation performance of 7150 participants (age 18–89 years) was measured. Results showed the participants provided informative estimates of their cognitive performance. However, strong systematic biases were present related to age and gender. Overestimation increased with increasing age. Overestimation was also found for males, whereas underestimation was found for females. Consideration of such biases is recommended when implementing self-report measures of cognition and considering the potential impact these biases may have on cognitive functioning itself.

Performance in everyday spatial orientation tasks (e.g., map reading and navigation) has been considered functionally separate from performance on more abstract object-based spatial abilities (e.g., mental rotation and visualization). However, few studies have examined the link between spatial orientation and object-based spatial skills, and even fewer have done so including a wide range of spatial tests. To examine this issue and more generally to test the structure of spatial ability, we used a novel gamified battery to assess six tests of spatial orientation in a virtual environment and examined their association with ten object-based spatial tests, as well as their links to general cognitive ability (g). We further estimated the role of genetic and environmental factors in underlying variation and covariation in these spatial tests. Participants (N = 2660; aged 19–22) were part of the Twins Early Development Study. The six tests of spatial orientation clustered into a single ‘Navigation’ factor that was 64% heritable. Examining the structure of spatial ability across all 16 tests, three, substantially correlated, factors emerged: Navigation, Object Manipulation, and Visualization. These, in turn, loaded strongly onto a general factor of Spatial Ability, which was highly heritable (84%). A large portion (45%) of this high heritability was independent of g. The results point towards the existence of a common genetic network that supports all spatial abilities.

Depression is a severe mental illness that can lead to negative moods and activities. The traditional clinical approach for diagnosing depression is face-to-face consultation, which is limited by time and space. Virtual Reality (VR), as a novel technology with higher accessibility and lower cost, can serve as an effective digital approach to diagnosing psychological disorders. In VR systems, users are exposed to various experimental scenarios, gaining immersive and interactive experiences. Recent research has demonstrated a relationship between depression and low spatial memory navigation ability (SMNA). Based on these considerations, we propose a VR system to detect one’s depression level by measuring spatial memory navigation performances. The system consists of three virtual scenarios with different spatial scales and dimensions. To study the system’s effectiveness, a pilot study with eight participants was conducted. The results showed differences in the participants’ spatial memory navigation performances in the three scenarios and a correlation between depression level and their spatial memory navigation performances.

Over the past several decades, substantial evidence has accumulated demonstrating sex differences in spatial abilities. Males outperform females in most visual tasks that require processing visuospatial information. Notably, in real-world contexts, this capacity also involves other sensory modalities, such as the auditory system. However, unlike visuospatial abilities, research on sex differences in auditory spatial abilities remains sparse. The present study investigated sex differences in an auditory spatial working memory task. Seventy-seven participants (41 female) completed the Audio-Corsi task, the well-established visual Mental Rotation Test (MRT), and a cognitive strategy questionnaire. Results revealed that males outperformed females on both the Audio-Corsi and the MRT. Interestingly, a significant relationship between performance on the Audio-Corsi and the MRT emerged, but only among females. Furthermore, to complete the Audio-Corsi, males reported employing the use of a holistic cognitive strategy more than females. These findings demonstrate that sex differences in spatial abilities extend across sensory modalities, encompassing both auditory and visual domains. They also underscore the distinct cognitive strategies employed by males and females in spatial processing. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of sex differences in spatial cognition.