Egocentric spatial navigation under under physiological and pathological conditions

What is it about?

Egocentric (self-centered) and allocentric (viewpoint independent) representations of space are essential for spatial navigation . Deficits in spatial memory come with age-related cognitive decline, are marked in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and are associated with cognitive deficits in autism.  However, while patients with AD and MCI have a general spatial navigation impairment in both allocentric and egocentric strategies, healthy older adults are particularly limited in the allocentric navigation, but they can still count on egocentric navigation strategy to solve spatial tasks. More research is still needed to better understand the spatial abilities of autistic individuals.

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Why is it important?

Unlike allocentric, the egocentric spatial strategy is quite preserved under physiological aging. But there are conditions such as AD in which egocentric ability is also impaired and this determines devastating effects on spatial navigation so that individual get lost even in a familiar environment. Neuropsychological screenings designed to assess navigational deficit may represent an important approach for detecting neurological and psychiatric disease progression, thus allowing an appropriate intervention.

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