Navigation ability in patients with acquired brain injury: A population-wide online study

M. N.A. van der Kuil*, J. M.A. Visser-Meily, A. W.M. Evers, I. J.M. van der Ham

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
10 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The ability to travel independently is a vital part of an autonomous life. It is important to investigate to what degree people with acquired brain injuries (ABI) suffer from navigation impairments. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of objective and subjective navigation impairments in the population of ABI patients. A large-scale online navigation study was conducted with 435 ABI patients and 7474 healthy controls. Participants studied a route through a virtual environment and completed 5 navigation tasks that assessed distinct functional components of navigation ability. Subjective navigation abilities were assessed using the Wayfinding questionnaire. Patients were matched to controls using propensity score matching. Overall, performance on objective navigation tasks was significantly lower in the ABI population compared to the healthy controls. The landmark recognition, route continuation and allocentric location knowledge tasks were most vulnerable to brain injury. The prevalence of subjective navigation impairments was higher in the ABI population compared to the healthy controls. In conclusion, a substantial proportion (39.1%) of the ABI population reports navigation impairments. We advocate the evaluation of objective and subjective navigation ability in neuropsychological assessments of ABI patients.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1405-1428
Number of pages24
JournalNeuropsychological Rehabilitation
Volume32
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Aug 2022

Keywords

  • “acquired brain injury”
  • “Navigation”
  • “rehabilitation”
  • “spatial cognition”
  • “topographical disorientation”
  • rehabilitation&#8221
  • &#8220
  • acquired brain injury&#8221
  • spatial cognition&#8221
  • topographical disorientation&#8221
  • Navigation&#8221

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