Assessing rapid spatial working memory in community-living older adults in a virtual adaptation of the rodent water maze paradigm

Aging often leads to a decline in various cognitive domains, potentially contributing to spatial navigation challenges among older individuals. While the Morris water maze is a common tool in rodents research for evaluating allocentric spatial memory function, its translation to studying aging in humans, particularly its association with hippocampal dysfunction, has predominantly focused on spatial reference memory assessments. This study expanded the adaptation of the Morris water maze for older adults to assess flexible, rapid, one-trial working memory. This adaptation involved a spatial search task guided by allocentric cues within a 3-D virtual reality (VR) environment. The sensitivity of this approach to aging was examined in 146 community-living adults from three Chinese cities, categorized into three age groups. Significant performance deficits were observed in participants over 60 years old compared to younger adults aged between 18 and 43. However, interpreting these findings was complicated by factors such as psychomotor slowness and potential variations in task engagement, except during the probe tests. Notably, the transition from the 60 s to the 70 s was not associated with a substantial deterioration of performance. A distinction only emerged when the pattern of spatial search over the entire maze was examined in the probe tests when the target location was never revealed. The VR task's sensitivity to overall cognitive function in older adults was reinforced by the correlation between Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores and probe test performance, demonstrating up to 17 % shared variance beyond that predicted by chronological age alone. In conclusion, while implementing a VR-based adaptation of rodent water maze paradigms in older adults was feasible, our experience highlighted specific interpretative challenges that must be addressed before such a test can effectively supplement traditional cognitive assessment tools in evaluating age-related cognitive decline.