Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Have you ever found yourself going in circles and unable to find your way in a familiar environment, such as driving through your own neighbourhood? A recently discovered disorder called Selective Developmental Topographical Disorientation explains this phenomenon. “It's like somebody picks up the whole world and sets it back down at a 90-degree angle,” says Sharon Roseman, who has a type of topographical disorder. "Finding our way" is a kind of task that requires the skills of memory, attention, perception, and decision-making. Specifically, the ability to complete such tasks involves two separate types of memory; procedural and spatial. Procedural memory is implicit and long term. It consists of our "how to" knowledge; basically our knowledge of the task's procedure. In this particular case, procedural memory would consist of landmarks, distances, and specific movements required for completion of some procedure (i.e. finding our way home). Spatial memory, on the other hand, is a cognitive map or mental picture of your entire trek. This map is formed through sensory information gathered from one’s surroundings. One must be capable of creating and reading such mental layouts in order to navigate our way home.
“Researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute recently documented the first case of a patient who, without apparent brain damage or cognitive impairment, is unable to orient within any environment.”
It is already known that damage to the brain can cause problems in terms of orientation and navigation, however in this study, no malformations or lesions were detected in the brains of the subjects. The researchers of this study, led by Giuseppe Laria of UBC Faculty of Medicine, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioural tests to study the disorder among subjects who reportedly get lost in their own neighbourhoods. Findings concluded that the patients were unable to form cognitive maps.
Not only will these findings create awareness, the research and discovery of this first case of Selective Developmental Topographical Disorientation will lead to more research on treatment and help for many who may not even be aware of their own disorder. Also, newer techniques like virtual reality could prove to be very useful in terms of therapy for this new type of disorder.
For more information on this disorder visit: www.gettinglost.ca
Sources:
Getting Lost: A Newly Discovered Developmental Brain Disorder
Lost in your neighbourhood? Could be a genetic disorder
© www.mentalhealthblog.com
Procedural Memory, Spatial Memory, Topographical Disorientation
2 comments
2 comments:
after reading about this disorientation diagnosis about a month ago, i identified it as mine and was so satisfied to have a medical explanation. when i tried to explain my problem to others, the best i could give as a description was to say that the geography and map areas in my head were blank spaces (i remember looking at a map of san diego county and seeing all those places where streets ended and finding out that is where desert land began and thinking, oh yes, just like my brain map). i wonder if others with varying degrees of this condition also have the recurring dream situation in which they are lost in an area of physical ground upheaval with obstacles everywhere. in these dreams, the obstacles are preventing me from getting home although, at the same time, i've forgotten just where home is. maybe i will have these dreams less often now.
I wonder if this is what I have experienced since a child? Although I have 180 degree rotation, which flips unnacountably, whereupon I become completely lost and disoriented, then it can flip back. Or not!
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