Abstract
Individuals affected by Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD) get lost on a daily basis, even in the most familiar of surroundings such as their neighbourhood, the building where they have worked for many years, and, in extreme cases, even in their own homes. Individuals with DTD report a lifelong selective inability to orient despite otherwise well-preserved general cognitive functions, and the absence of any acquired brain injury or neurological condition, with general intelligence reported to be within the normal range. To date, the mechanisms underlying such a selective developmental condition remain unknown. Here, we report the findings of a 10-year-long study investigating the behavioural and cognitive mechanisms of DTD in a large sample of 1211 cases. We describe the demographics, heritability pattern, self-reported and objective spatial abilities, and some personality traits of individuals with DTD as compared to a sample of 1624 healthy controls; importantly, we test the specific hypothesis that the presence of DTD is significantly related to the inability of the individuals to form a mental representation of the spatial surroundings (i.e., a cognitive map). We found that individuals with DTD reported relatively greater levels of neuroticism and negative affect, and rated themselves more poorly on self-report measures of memory and imagery skills related to objects, faces, and places. While performing interactive tasks, as a group, the individuals with DTD performed slightly worse on a scene-based perspective-taking task, and, notably struggled to solve tasks that demand the generation and use of a cognitive map. These novel findings help define the phenotype of DTD, and lay the foundation for future studies of the neurological and genetic mechanisms of this lifelong condition.
Highlights
We have described the various demographic, familial, personality, and spatial measures that appear to be affected in individuals with Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD)
From our battery of interactive tasks, as a group, the individuals with DTD slightly struggled on a scene-based perspective-taking task and clearly struggled with tasks that demanded they generate and use a mental representation of an environment, i.e., the Spatial Configuration Task and Cognitive Map Test
It is possible that higher levels of neuroticism or negative affect are not core features of DTD, but are more likely to be associated with DTD causing impairments in performing day-to-day navigational activities and increasing the likelihood of characterizing oneself as having difficulties orienting
Summary
Individuals with DTD seem to be unable to form a mental representation of the environment (i.e., a cognitive map) despite extended exposure to their spatial s urroundings[5,6] This specific symptom seems to be in line with a lifelong experience of getting lost—given that cognitive maps are critical to successful orientation in familiar surroundings since, once formed, they allow individuals to reach any target location from anywhere within the environment, and even permit generating alternative, unexplored routes if r equired[15]. The inability of individuals with DTD to form cognitive maps may leave them with a sense of unfamiliarity, frequently triggering topographical disorientation even in the most familiar surroundings This hypothesis seems plausible given the current knowledge on the critical role that cognitive maps play in spatial orientation, to date, the limited number of reported cases of DTD available in the literature is not sufficient to verify this hypothesis and define the phenotype(s) of this developmental condition. Heritability pattern, selfreported and objective spatial ability, and some personality traits of individuals with DTD as compared to a sample of 1624 healthy controls, and importantly, illustrate that the presence of DTD is primarily related to the inability to form spatial cognitive maps
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