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Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories

Updating navigational memories is important for everyday tasks. It was recently found that older adults are impaired in updating spatial representations in small, bi-dimensional layouts. Because performance in small-scale areas cannot predict navigational behavior, we investigated how aging affects...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Merhav, Maayan, Wolbers, Thomas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6686023/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31391574
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47971-2
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author Merhav, Maayan
Wolbers, Thomas
author_facet Merhav, Maayan
Wolbers, Thomas
author_sort Merhav, Maayan
collection PubMed
description Updating navigational memories is important for everyday tasks. It was recently found that older adults are impaired in updating spatial representations in small, bi-dimensional layouts. Because performance in small-scale areas cannot predict navigational behavior, we investigated how aging affects the updating of navigational memories encoded in large, 3-dimensional environments. Moreover, since locations can be encoded relative to the observer (egocentric encoding) or relative to landmarks (allocentric encoding), we tested whether the presumed age-related spatial updating deficit depends on the available spatial cues. By combining whole-body motion tracking with immersive virtual reality, we could dissociate egocentric and allocentric spatial cues and assess navigational memory under ecologically valid conditions (i.e., providing body-based and visual cues). In the task, objects were relocated overnight, and young and older participants had to navigate to the updated locations of the objects. In addition to replicating age-related deficits in allocentric memory, we found age-related impairments in updating navigational memories following egocentric encoding. Finally, older participants depicted stronger representations of the previous navigational context that were correlated with their spatial updating deficits. Given that these effects may stem from inefficient suppression of former navigational memories, our findings propose a mechanism that helps explain the navigational decline in aging.
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spelling pubmed-66860232019-08-12 Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories Merhav, Maayan Wolbers, Thomas Sci Rep Article Updating navigational memories is important for everyday tasks. It was recently found that older adults are impaired in updating spatial representations in small, bi-dimensional layouts. Because performance in small-scale areas cannot predict navigational behavior, we investigated how aging affects the updating of navigational memories encoded in large, 3-dimensional environments. Moreover, since locations can be encoded relative to the observer (egocentric encoding) or relative to landmarks (allocentric encoding), we tested whether the presumed age-related spatial updating deficit depends on the available spatial cues. By combining whole-body motion tracking with immersive virtual reality, we could dissociate egocentric and allocentric spatial cues and assess navigational memory under ecologically valid conditions (i.e., providing body-based and visual cues). In the task, objects were relocated overnight, and young and older participants had to navigate to the updated locations of the objects. In addition to replicating age-related deficits in allocentric memory, we found age-related impairments in updating navigational memories following egocentric encoding. Finally, older participants depicted stronger representations of the previous navigational context that were correlated with their spatial updating deficits. Given that these effects may stem from inefficient suppression of former navigational memories, our findings propose a mechanism that helps explain the navigational decline in aging. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6686023/ /pubmed/31391574 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47971-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Merhav, Maayan
Wolbers, Thomas
Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories
title Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories
title_full Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories
title_fullStr Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories
title_full_unstemmed Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories
title_short Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories
title_sort aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6686023/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31391574
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47971-2
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