1. Reaching the Goal: Superior Navigators in Late Adulthood Provide a Novel Perspective into Successful Cognitive Aging
- Author
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Ruojing, Zhou, Tuğçe, Belge, and Thomas, Wolbers
- Subjects
Adult ,Linguistics and Language ,physiology [Spatial Navigation] ,Adolescent ,Episodic memory ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,physiology [Spatial Memory] ,Memory, Episodic ,physiology [Cognition] ,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology ,physiology [Aging] ,Hippocampus ,Spatial navigation ,Human-Computer Interaction ,Superaging ,Cognitive aging ,Artificial Intelligence ,Humans ,psychology [Aging] ,ddc:400 ,Aged - Abstract
Normal aging is typically associated with declines in navigation and spatial memory abilities. However, increased interindividual variability in performance across various navigation/spatial memory tasks is also evident with advancing age. In this review paper, we shed the spotlight on those older individuals who exhibit exceptional, sometimes even youth-like navigational/spatial memory abilities. Importantly, we (1) showcase observations from existing studies that demonstrate superior navigation/spatial memory performance in late adulthood, (2) explore possible cognitive correlates and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these preserved spatial abilities, and (3) discuss the potential link between the superior navigators in late adulthood and SuperAgers (older adults with superior episodic memory). In the closing section, given the lack of studies that directly focus on this subpopulation, we highlight several important directions that future studies could look into to better understand the cognitive characteristics of older superior navigators and the factors enabling such successful cognitive aging.
- Published
- 2023