Measurement of spatial navigation and application research in cognitive aging

Abstract: Spatial navigation is an essential high-level cognitive function in daily life. However, the involved brain regions such as hippocampus and entorhinal cortex are vulnerable to aging and result in structural atrophy and functional alterations. Using the experimental paradigms like animal experiments, pencil-paper tests, and real-world navigation, early studies explored the behavioral performance of spatial navigation in older adults. By virtue of having similar scenes with realistic environment, compatible with magnetic resonance imaging scanning, and navigator could have interactions with scenes, virtual reality is increasingly applied in the age-related spatial navigation research, revealing the important role of medial temporal cortex such as hippocampus in age-related spatial navigation studies.