The potential of virtual reality for spatial navigation research across the adult lifespan

ABSTRACT Older adults often experience serious problems in spatial navigation, and alterations in underlying brain structures are among the first indicators for a progression to neurodegenerative diseases. Studies investigating the neural mechanisms of spatial navigation and its changes across the adult lifespan are increasingly using virtual reality (VR) paradigms. VR offers major benefits in terms of ecological validity, experimental control and options to track behavioral responses. However, navigation in the real world differs from navigation in VR in several aspects. In addition, the importance of body-based or visual cues for navigation varies between animal species. Incongruences between sensory and motor input in VR might consequently affect their performance to a different degree. After discussing the specifics of using VR in spatial navigation research across species, we outline several challenges when investigating age-related deficits in spatial navigation with the help of VR. In addition, we discuss ways to reduce their impact, together with the possibilities VR offers for improving navigational abilities in older adults. Summary: This Review describes how virtual reality is used to study spatial navigation across species and discusses the benefits and challenges when using it in older age groups.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Journal of Experimental Biology

• Publication date

  2019-02-06

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Computer Science, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1242/jeb.187252PMID 30728232
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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