Visuospatial Functioning and Navigation Learning by Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment in a Virtual City

초록

We studied the navigation ability and visual functioning of patients with MCI in Virtual Environments (VEs). Forty nineparticipants consisted of elderly adults with/without MCI. Neuropsychological tests (RCFT, BVRT, TMT, and Digit Span), the Groton Maze Learning Test (12 trials), and the VE navigation learning task (6 trials) were performed. As a result, there were significant group differences for the immediate-recall RCFT, the delayed-recall RCFT, and the BVRT, but not for the GMLT. For the VE task, there was a significant difference between the MCI and normal group, and no interactions between groups and trials were found. The VE task was correlated with the RCFT, the BVRT, and the GMLT. The RCFT and the BVRT combined accounted for 45% of VE performance. Thus, we concluded that patients with MCI are inferior in VE navigation, and that visual retention/memory play a role in navigation abilities.

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