Performance on a virtual reality spatial memory navigation task in depressed patients.

Objective: Findings on spatial memory in depression have been inconsistent. A navigation task based on virtual reality may provide a more sensitive and consistent measure of the hippocampal-related spatial memory deficits associated with depression.Method: Performance on a novel virtual reality navi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	American Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 164; no. 3; pp. 516 - 520
Main Authors:	Gould NF, Holmes MK, Fantie BD, Luckenbaugh DA, Pine DS, Gould TD, Burgess N, Manji HK, Zarate CA Jr., Gould, Neda F, Holmes, M Kathleen, Fantie, Bryan D, Luckenbaugh, David A, Pine, Daniel S, Gould, Todd D, Burgess, Neil, Manji, Husseini K, Zarate, Carlos A Jr
Format:	pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Published:	American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. Mar2007
Online Access:	View this record in EBSCOhost

Description
Summary:	Objective: Findings on spatial memory in depression have been inconsistent. A navigation task based on virtual reality may provide a more sensitive and consistent measure of the hippocampal-related spatial memory deficits associated with depression.Method: Performance on a novel virtual reality navigation task and a traditional measure of spatial memory was assessed in 30 depressed patients (unipolar and bipolar) and 19 normal comparison subjects.Results: Depressed patients performed significantly worse than comparison subjects on the virtual reality task, as assessed by the number of locations found in the virtual town. Between-group differences were not detected on the traditional measure. The navigation task showed high test-retest reliability.Conclusions: Depressed patients performed worse than healthy subjects on a novel spatial memory task. Virtual reality navigation may provide a consistent, sensitive measure of cognitive deficits in patients with affective disorders, representing a mechanism to study a putative endophenotype for hippocampal function.