title: The use of virtual environments for survey spatial ability evaluation in topographical disorientation.
abstract: Due to their interactivity and to the sense of presence they afford, virtual environments constitute an interesting opportunity to study spatial cognition. In accordance with this perspective, we aimed to introduce a spatial test in virtual simulation in order to investigate the survey spatial ability in patients with topographical disorientation. To do this, we used the "planning in advance task" in a virtual environment that constitutes an effective procedure to experimentally evaluate survey maps. With this procedure we present the single case of a woman, with a right medial temporal lobe lesion, who shows a selective impairment in the acquisition of new spatial relationships. The patient's performance in "planning in advance task" was compared with that of a control group made up of 40 female subjects matched for age and education. Results show how the patient revealed a significantly lower spatial performance when compared to the control group, demonstrating an inability to solve survey-type spatial tasks in complex virtual environments.
authors.affiliation: Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy. francesca.morganti@auxologico.it
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Morganti
authors.forename: Maria Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Rusconi
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paladino
authors.forename: Giuliano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Geminiani
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carassa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000377:Agnosia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013028:Space Perception; D014584:User-Computer Interface