Performance on a virtual reality spatial memory navigation task in depressed patients.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
Findings on spatial memory in depression have been inconsistent. A navigation task based on virtual reality may provide a more sensitive and consistent measure of the hippocampal-related spatial memory deficits associated with depression.

METHOD:
Performance on a novel virtual reality navigation task and a traditional measure of spatial memory was assessed in 30 depressed patients (unipolar and bipolar) and 19 normal comparison subjects.

RESULTS:
Depressed patients performed significantly worse than comparison subjects on the virtual reality task, as assessed by the number of locations found in the virtual town. Between-group differences were not detected on the traditional measure. The navigation task showed high test-retest reliability.

CONCLUSIONS:
Depressed patients performed worse than healthy subjects on a novel spatial memory task. Virtual reality navigation may provide a consistent, sensitive measure of cognitive deficits in patients with affective disorders, representing a mechanism to study a putative endophenotype for hippocampal function.

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Author information

Author/s: Gould, Neda F (NF); Holmes, M Kathleen (MK); Fantie, Bryan D (BD); Luckenbaugh, David A (DA); Pine, Daniel S (DS); Gould, Todd D (TD); Burgess, Neil (N); Manji, Husseini K (HK); Zarate, Carlos A (CA);

Affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, NIMH, Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, 10 Center Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

Journal: The American journal of psychiatry (Am J Psychiatry), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Mar; vol 164 (issue 3) : pp 516-9

Dates: Created 2007/03/01; Completed 2007/05/17;

PMID: 17329478, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Bipolar Disorder - diagnosis; psychology
Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; physiopathology; psychology
Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; psychology
Female
Hippocampus - physiopathology
Humans
Male
Memory - physiology

Memory - physiology
Memory Disorders - diagnosis; physiopathology; psychology
Middle Aged
Phenotype
Reproducibility of Results
Space Perception - physiology
Spatial Behavior - physiology
Task Performance and Analysis
User-Computer Interface

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