title: Assessing Mental Imagery to Evaluate Topographical Disorientation: Group Study and Preliminary Normative Data.
abstract: There is currently no specific neuropsychological test assessing spatial orientation abilities, despite the fact that navigational deficits are heavily incapacitating in daily life. This lack of a specific test is probably due to theoretical vagueness of concepts in this field and important interindividual differences in spatial cognition. Here we propose a new standardized test assessing a fundamental component of spatial orientation-namely, mental imagery: Adequate mental visualization of the environment is indeed a necessary step in finding one's way. Two conditions of mental imagery were proposed to a group of 58 patients with a right cerebral lesion and to a control group (N = 117). The 1st condition assessed global, categorical imagery; the 2nd evaluated precise, metric imagery. We evaluated performance of the 2 groups in the 2 conditions and the impact of sociodemographic variables (age, gender, education). Results show that the right-lesioned patients presented difficulties in mental imagery, especially in the metric condition. Moreover, the data indicate a global impact of age and a milder effect of education on mental imagery abilities. Although sample sizes are sometimes small, preliminary normative data are given; already in the present form, they are usable and informative in assessing mental imagery, and more generally, spatial orientation, in a clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences , University of Geneva , Geneva.|b Neuropsychology Unit , Western Switzerland Rehabilitation Clinic , Sion , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Virginie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Descloux
authors.affiliation: c Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences , University of Geneva , Geneva , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maurer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D003221:Confusion / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012016:Reference Values; D013028:Space Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: assessment; mental imagery; neuropsychology; spatial orientation