Article

To go from one place to another, we routinely generate internal
representations of surrounding spaces, which can include egocentric
(body-centred) and allocentric (world-centred) coordinates, combined into route
and survey representations.Recent studies have shown how both egocentric and
allocentric representations exist in parallel and are joined to support behaviour
according to the task.Our study investigated the transfer from survey (map-like)
to route representations in healthy and brain-damaged subjects. The aim was
two-fold: first, to understand how this ability could change with age in a sample
of healthy participants, aged from 40 to 71 years old; second, to investigate how
it is affected after a brain lesion in a 8 patients' sample, with reference to
specific neuropsychological frames. METHODS: Participants were first required to
perform the paper and pencil version of eight mazes, then to translate the
map-like paths into egocentric routes, in order to find the right way into
equivalent Virtual Reality (VR) mazes.Patients also underwent a comprehensive
neuropsychological evaluation, including a specific investigation of some
topographical orientation components. RESULTS: As regards the healthy sample, we
found age-related deterioration in VR task performance. While education level and
gender were not found to be related to performance, global cognitive level (Mini
Mental State Examination), previous experience with computer and fluidity of
navigation into the VR appeared to influence VR task results.Considering the
clinical sample, there was a difficulty in performing the VR Maze task; executive
functions and visuo-spatial abilities deficits appeared to be more relevant for
predicting patients' results. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests the importance of
developing tools aimed at investigating the survey to route transfer ability in
both healthy elderly and clinical samples, since this skill seems high cognitive
demanding and sensitive to cognitive decline.Human-computer interaction issues
should be considered in employing new technologies, such as VR environments, with
elderly subjects and neurological patients.

Langue : ANGLAIS