Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans
Path integration plays a vital role in navigation: it enables the continuous tracking of one's position in space by integrating self-motion cues. Path integration abilities vary widely across individuals, and tend to deteriorate in old age. The specific causes of path integration errors, howeve...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/135447 |
| _version_ | 1811073780792950784 |
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| author | Stangl, Matthias Kanitscheider, Ingmar Riemer, Martin Fiete, Ila Wolbers, Thomas |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Stangl, Matthias Kanitscheider, Ingmar Riemer, Martin Fiete, Ila Wolbers, Thomas |
| author_sort | Stangl, Matthias |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Path integration plays a vital role in navigation: it enables the continuous tracking of one's position in space by integrating self-motion cues. Path integration abilities vary widely across individuals, and tend to deteriorate in old age. The specific causes of path integration errors, however, remain poorly characterized. Here, we combine tests of path integration performance in participants of different ages with an analysis based on the Langevin equation for diffusive dynamics, which allows us to decompose errors into distinct causes that can corrupt path integration computations. We show that, across age groups, the dominant error source is unbiased noise that accumulates with travel distance not elapsed time, suggesting that the noise originates in the velocity input rather than within the integrator. Age-related declines are primarily traced to a growth in this noise. These findings shed light on the contributors to path integration error and the mechanisms underlying age-related navigational deficits. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:38:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/135447 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:38:27Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1354472023-10-05T20:07:07Z Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans Stangl, Matthias Kanitscheider, Ingmar Riemer, Martin Fiete, Ila Wolbers, Thomas Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Path integration plays a vital role in navigation: it enables the continuous tracking of one's position in space by integrating self-motion cues. Path integration abilities vary widely across individuals, and tend to deteriorate in old age. The specific causes of path integration errors, however, remain poorly characterized. Here, we combine tests of path integration performance in participants of different ages with an analysis based on the Langevin equation for diffusive dynamics, which allows us to decompose errors into distinct causes that can corrupt path integration computations. We show that, across age groups, the dominant error source is unbiased noise that accumulates with travel distance not elapsed time, suggesting that the noise originates in the velocity input rather than within the integrator. Age-related declines are primarily traced to a growth in this noise. These findings shed light on the contributors to path integration error and the mechanisms underlying age-related navigational deficits. 2021-10-27T20:23:30Z 2021-10-27T20:23:30Z 2020 2021-03-19T13:41:15Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/135447 en 10.1038/S41467-020-15805-9 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media LLC Nature |
| spellingShingle | Stangl, Matthias Kanitscheider, Ingmar Riemer, Martin Fiete, Ila Wolbers, Thomas Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans |
| title | Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans |
| title_full | Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans |
| title_fullStr | Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans |
| title_short | Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans |
| title_sort | sources of path integration error in young and aging humans |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/135447 |
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