title: Maladaptive bias for extrahippocampal navigation strategies in aging humans.
abstract: Efficient spatial navigation requires not only accurate spatial knowledge but also the selection of appropriate strategies. Using a novel paradigm that allowed us to distinguish between beacon, associative cue, and place strategies, we investigated the effects of cognitive aging on the selection and adoption of navigation strategies in humans. Participants were required to rejoin a previously learned route encountered from an unfamiliar direction. Successful performance required the use of an allocentric place strategy, which was increasingly observed in young participants over six experimental sessions. In contrast, older participants, who were able to recall the route when approaching intersections from the same direction as during encoding, failed to use the correct place strategy when approaching intersections from novel directions. Instead, they continuously used a beacon strategy and showed no evidence of changing their behavior across the six sessions. Given that this bias was already apparent in the first experimental session, the inability to adopt the correct place strategy is not related to an inability to switch from a firmly established response strategy to an allocentric place strategy. Rather, and in line with previous research, age-related deficits in allocentric processing result in shifts in preferred navigation strategies and an overall bias for response strategies. The specific preference for a beacon strategy is discussed in the context of a possible dissociation between beacon-based and associative-cue-based response learning in the striatum, with the latter being more sensitive to age-related changes.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Research Centre, Bournemouth University, Poole, BH12 5BB, United Kingdom. jwiener@bournemouth.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wiener
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: de Condappa
authors.forename: Mathew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wolbers
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001245:Association Learning; D015982:Bias; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
references.citation: Behav Brain Res. 2004 Apr 2;150(1-2):15-23
references.pmid: 15033275
references.citation: Behav Processes. 2001 Mar 13;53(1-2):75-85
references.pmid: 11254994
references.citation: Trends Neurosci. 2004 Aug;27(8):468-74
references.pmid: 15271494
references.citation: Behav Brain Res. 2010 May 1;209(1):49-58
references.pmid: 20085784
references.citation: Behav Neurosci. 2002 Oct;116(5):851-9
references.pmid: 12369805
references.citation: Hippocampus. 2012 Aug;22(8):1770-80
references.pmid: 22431367
references.citation: Psychol Aging. 2000 Mar;15(1):126-47
references.pmid: 10755295
references.citation: J Am Geriatr Soc. 2005 Apr;53(4):695-9
references.pmid: 15817019
references.citation: Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2009 Feb;24(2):197-201
references.pmid: 18850670
references.citation: Behav Neural Biol. 1994 May;61(3):260-70
references.pmid: 8067981
references.citation: Annu Rev Pathol. 2008;3:41-66
references.pmid: 18039130
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2005 Mar 30;25(13):3333-40
references.pmid: 15800188
references.citation: Synapse. 2003 Jun 15;48(4):205-11
references.pmid: 12687640
references.citation: Neuroscience. 2005;136(2):387-95
references.pmid: 16226388
references.citation: Arch Neurol. 2009 Jul;66(7):829-33
references.pmid: 19597084
references.citation: Hippocampus. 2010 Apr;20(4):481-91
references.pmid: 19554566
references.citation: Neuron. 2004 Aug 5;43(3):427-35
references.pmid: 15294149
references.citation: J Neurosci. 1999 Apr 1;19(7):2789-98
references.pmid: 10087090
references.citation: Neurobiol Aging. 2012 Jan;33(1):202.e15-22
references.pmid: 20832911
references.citation: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2008 Mar;1124:77-97
references.pmid: 18400925
references.citation: Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2004 Nov;21(3):401-11
references.pmid: 15511655
references.citation: Learn Mem. 2004 Jul-Aug;11(4):459-63
references.pmid: 15286184
references.citation: PLoS One. 2011 Apr 04;6(4):e18611
references.pmid: 21483699
references.citation: J Neurol. 2000 Sep;247 Suppl 5:V1-15
references.pmid: 11081799
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Apr 15;105(15):5915-20
references.pmid: 18408152
references.citation: Neuroscience. 1989;29(3):503-37
references.pmid: 2472578
references.citation: J Chem Neuroanat. 2003 Dec;26(4):317-30
references.pmid: 14729134
references.citation: Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010 Jan;35(1):48-69
references.pmid: 19776734
references.citation: Cereb Cortex. 2007 Jun;17(6):1274-82
references.pmid: 16857855
references.citation: Neurobiol Learn Mem. 1996 Jan;65(1):65-72
references.pmid: 8673408
references.citation: Cereb Cortex. 2005 Nov;15(11):1676-89
references.pmid: 15703252
references.citation: Behav Brain Res. 2009 Jan 23;196(2):187-91
references.pmid: 18817815
references.citation: Learn Mem. 2003 Nov-Dec;10(6):520-4
references.pmid: 14657263
references.citation: Hippocampus. 2002;12(6):811-20
references.pmid: 12542232
references.citation: Mem Cognit. 2007 Jul;35(5):910-24
references.pmid: 17910176
references.citation: Neuron. 2003 Mar 6;37(5):877-88
references.pmid: 12628177
references.citation: Front Aging Neurosci. 2012 May 21;4:7
references.pmid: 22661944
references.citation: Neural Plast. 2010;2010:108190
references.pmid: 21331296
references.citation: Psychol Aging. 1991 Mar;6(1):128-33
references.pmid: 2029361
references.citation: Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2011 Dec;21(12):885-91
references.pmid: 21511442