TY - JOUR
T1 - Combining patient-lesion and big data approaches to reveal hippocampal contributions to spatial memory and navigation
AU - Pishdadian, Sara
AU - Coutrot, Antoine
AU - Webber, Lauren
AU - Hornberger, Michael
AU - Spiers, Hugo
AU - Rosenbaum, R. Shayna
N1 - Funding information: Funding sources include Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Grant (RGPIN-2021-40335) to R.S.R. and Canadian Psychological Association Neuropsychology Section Student Research grant to S.P.
PY - 2024/6/21
Y1 - 2024/6/21
N2 - Classic findings of impaired allocentric spatial learning and memory following hippocampal lesions indicate that the hippocampus supports cognitive maps of one’s environment. Many studies assess navigation in vista-space virtual reality environments and compare hippocampal-lesioned individuals’ performance to that of small control samples, potentially stifling detection of preserved and impaired performance. Using the mobile app Sea Hero Quest, we examined navigation in diverse complex environments in two individuals with hippocampal lesions relative to demographically matched controls (N = 17,734). We found surprisingly accurate navigation in several environments, particularly those containing a constrained set of sub-goals, paths, and/or turns. Areas of impaired performance may reflect a role for the hippocampus in anterograde memory and more flexible and/or precise spatial representations, even when the need for allocentric processing is minimal. The results emphasize the value of combining single cases with big data and illustrate navigation performance profiles in individuals with hippocampal compromise.
AB - Classic findings of impaired allocentric spatial learning and memory following hippocampal lesions indicate that the hippocampus supports cognitive maps of one’s environment. Many studies assess navigation in vista-space virtual reality environments and compare hippocampal-lesioned individuals’ performance to that of small control samples, potentially stifling detection of preserved and impaired performance. Using the mobile app Sea Hero Quest, we examined navigation in diverse complex environments in two individuals with hippocampal lesions relative to demographically matched controls (N = 17,734). We found surprisingly accurate navigation in several environments, particularly those containing a constrained set of sub-goals, paths, and/or turns. Areas of impaired performance may reflect a role for the hippocampus in anterograde memory and more flexible and/or precise spatial representations, even when the need for allocentric processing is minimal. The results emphasize the value of combining single cases with big data and illustrate navigation performance profiles in individuals with hippocampal compromise.
U2 - 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109977
DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109977
M3 - Article
VL - 27
JO - iScience
JF - iScience
SN - 2589-0042
IS - 6
M1 - 109977
ER -