The starmaze: A paradigm to characterize strategies during spatial navigation
L. Rondi-Reig1, E. Burguière1, G. Petit1,2,
A. Arleo1, K. Igloi1 and M. Zaoui1
1LPPA, CNRS-Collège de France, Paris,
France
2NPA-DVSN, CNRS-Université Paris 6, Paris, France
Spatial orientation disorders are a major problem in the aged. Among
the different cognitive strategies used for spatial navigation, the most
complex ones seem to be primarily deteriorated during ageing. Being able
to dissociate the different cognitive strategies might help us in the
early detection of age related brain diseases.
In order to study different strategies of navigation, a new task was
designed and named starmaze. This test was first developed
in animal and then adapted to human using virtual reality. In both cases,
up to three different strategies of navigation can be dissociated.
The starmaze is a central pentagonal ring from which five centrally-symetric
alleys radiate. A fixed and invisible goal has to be found. To find this
goal, the subject can either use distal cues (allocentric strategy), proximal
cues located on the internal part of the walls (guidance strategy), or
a sequence of body movements leading to the goal (egocentric strategy).
Two versions of the task were used:
- The fixed-departure (multiple possible strategies: allocentric, egocentric
and guidance.
- The allocentric. In the fixed-departure version, the task had two
components: the first component tested learning ability; the second
one allowed the characterization of the strategy used in order to learn
the task. The allocentric version of the task required the subject learning
to reach the goal from different starting points and therefore required
a spatial representation of the environment.
Data acquisition was performed by means of a video recording system and/or
tracking software. Multiple parameters were measured such as for example
the distance travelled during each trial and the number of visited arms.
Data processing was automated via a MATLAB batch program developed in
our laboratory. The paper will present a comparison of the versions used
in the two species.
Paper presented
at Measuring Behavior 2005
, 5th International Conference on Methods and Techniques
in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The
Netherlands.
© 2005 Noldus
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