The effect of aging on human brain spatial processing performance

Cognitive abilities similar to other mental or physical abilities develop and change during the course of life. Spatial processing is a cognitive ability, which has been suggested to deteriorate by age [1]. The focus of this paper is to study the change of real time egocentric spatial processing in humans by age. For this, an interactive computer game played with a 2DOF manipulandum was designed. The game consists of goal-oriented motor tasks, in which the player must move the robot arm toward a desired spatial cue in a virtual 2D environment in every trial for a total number of 72 trials. The spatial cues are four final destinations and a starting location, which change their position in every new trial of the game. 37 individuals with no cognitive impairment were split into 3 groups according to different age range (children, young, and elderly) and participated in this experiment. Their spatial processing ability was assessed and compared between the age groups. The results show the children (7-12 y) and elderly (65⁺ y) performed very similar and significantly worse than the young adult participants.