Enhancing spatial navigation using non-invasive brain stimulation

描述（由申请人提供）： 记住如何从一个地方到另一个地方旅行在日常生活中至关重要，但这至关重要。 能力随着正常的衰老而下降，并且可能进一步受到不成比例地影响老年人的条件的影响，例如视力丧失或进行性痴呆。人类和动物的研究表明，两个不同的记忆系统在导航过程中相互作用。第一种称为非中心导航，非常灵活，使用关键特征或地标的空间知识来开发和使用环境的心理地图。这种方法涉及对新的学习和记忆至关重要但随着年龄的增长而下降的大脑区域。第二种被称为自我中心导航，是不灵活的，依赖于将特定特征与特定方向联系起来的“习惯”记忆。这种方法依赖于大脑区域，这些区域对“自动”反应至关重要，并且相对不受年龄的影响。 主要的问题是，allocentric导航随着年龄的增长而下降，并伴随着对自我中心导航的依赖性增加。这种变化增加了在不熟悉的地区旅行时，甚至在熟悉的地区行驶新路线时迷失方向或“迷路”的风险。因此，该项目的主要目标是研究非侵入性脑刺激，特别是经颅直流电刺激，是否可以改善健康老年人的非自主导航。参与者将在学习新环境的同时完成三次功能性磁共振成像。在其中两次会议之前，老年人将接受旨在改善或减少非中心导航的大脑刺激，这应该会改善相关大脑区域的功能。预期自我中心导航将表现出对刺激的相反反应。老年人还将与一组健康的年轻参与者进行比较，以检查刺激是否减少了与年龄相关的非中心记忆和相关大脑功能障碍。 最终，这种方法可以与认知康复技术或外部记忆辅助工具（如物理地图）结合使用，并使广泛的老年人受益，无论他们是否患有影响认知功能的其他年龄相关疾病。!

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Remembering how to travel from one location to another is critical in everyday life, yet this vital ability declines with normal aging and can be further affected by conditions that disproportionately affect the elderly, such as vision loss or progressive dementia. Human and animal research has shown that two distinct memory systems interact during navigation. The first, referred to as allocentric navigation, is very flexible and uses spatial knowledge of key features or landmarks to develop and use a mental map of the environment. This approach involves brain regions that are critical for new learning and memory but that decline with age. The second, referred to as egocentric navigation, is inflexible and relies on "habit" memories that link specific features with specific directions. This approach relies on brain regions that ar critical for "automatic" responses and that are relatively unaffected by age. The main problem is that allocentric navigation declines with age and is accompanied increased dependence on egocentric navigation. This change increases the risk of becoming disoriented or "lost" when traveling in unfamiliar areas or even when traveling new routes in familiar areas. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to examine whether non-invasive brain stimulation, specifically transcranial direct current stimulation, can improve allocentric navigation in healthy older adults Participants will complete three functional magnetic resonance imaging sessions while learning new environments. Before two of these sessions, older adults will receive brain stimulation that is designed to improve or reduce allocentric navigation, which should improve functioning in the related brain regions. The expectation is that egocentric navigation will demonstrate the opposite response to stimulation. The older adults will also be compared against a group of healthy young participants to examine whether stimulation reduced age-related impairments in allocentric memory and associated brain functioning. Ultimately, this approach could be used in combination with cognitive rehabilitation techniques or external memory aids, like physical maps, and benefit a wide range of older adults both with and without additional age-related diseases that affect cognitive functioning. !