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Noise disturbs the brain's compass: Identifying causes for troubles in spatial navigation:
From visual stimuli to muscle feedback and signals relayed by the vestibular system -- the human brain uses a wide range of sensory inputs to determine position and to guide us through space. An essential part of the necessary information processing happens in the "entorhinal cortex." In this area, which is present in both brain hemispheres, there are special neurons that generate a mental map of the physical environment. Thus, information on real space is translated into a "data format," which the brain can process. "The human navigation system works quite well. But it is not without flaws," explained Prof. Thomas Wolbers, principal investigator at the DZNE, Magdeburg site. "It is well known that there are people with good orientation skills and those who find it harder to find their way around. This ability usually diminishes with age, because older people generally find spatial orientation more difficult than younger individuals, especially in unfamiliar surroundings. Therefore, the chances of getting lost increase with age."
To understand the causes of this decline, DZNE scientists led by Thomas Wolbers, in collaboration with experts from the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Texas at Austin, designed a specific experiment: A total of about 60 cognitively healthy young and older adults who were fitted with "virtual reality" goggles had to move and orient themselves -- separately from each other -- within a digitally generated environment. Simultaneously, participants also moved physically along convoluted paths. They were assisted by an experimenter who led the individual test person by the hand. In doing so, real locomotion led directly to movements in virtual space. "This is an artificial setting, but it reflects aspects of real situations," said Wolbers.
During the experiment, participants were asked several times to estimate the distance and direction to the starting point of the path. Because the virtual environment offered only a few visual cues for orientation, participants had to rely mainly on other stimuli. "We looked at how accurately participants were able to assess their position in space and thus tested what is known as path integration. In other words, the ability to determine position based on body awareness and the perception of one's own movement. Path integration is considered a central function of spatial orientation," explained Wolbers.
Journal Reference:
Matthias Stangl, Ingmar Kanitscheider, Martin Riemer, et al. Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15805-9)
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