Money Road Map Test Research Articles

The Wayfinding Questionnaire-Turkish (WQ-TR): A study of cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of validity and reliability

Objectıves: Navigation and wayfinding is a neurocognitive skill that we often use in daily life. The aim of this study is to adapt the Wayfinding Questionnaire-Turkish (WQ-TR), which assesses the navigation complaints of individuals, and to assess psychometric properties of WQ-TR in healthy individuals. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted with 363 healthy participants (203 F, 160 M) aged 18 and 69 (mean: 39.0±13.1). WQ-TR and Money's Road Map Test (RMT) were applied to all participants. Validity analyses were conducted with construct and concurrent validity. Factory structures of the questionnaire were formed with principal axis factoring in construct validity. The correlation between the RMT error counts and WQ-TR scores was evaluated for concurrent validity. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and test-retest reliability were performed in reliability analyses. Results: WQ-TR has 20 items and 3-factor structures: “Navigation and Orientation(NO)”, “Spatial Anxiety-Ambiguous(SA-A)” and “Spatial Anxiety-Organisation(SA-O)”. In line with the correlation between RMT error counts and WQ-TR scores, WQ-TR was found to have moderate validity. High internal consistency (a: 0.906) and high intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC: 0.976) were observed. WQ-TR showed satisfactory internal consistency, excellent test-retest reliability and moderate validity. Conclusion: WQ-TR, the first Turkish questionnaire assessing navigation skills and showed perfect internal consistency, reliability and validity, was presented for clinical and scientific use.

Does Hearing Impairment Impact Spatial Orientation, Navigation, and Rotation Abilities?

Spatial cognition is a perceptual-motor function that pertains to the comprehension and processing of two-dimensional and three-dimensional space. The impairment of any sensory system can have adverse effects on cognitive functioning. The objective of this study is to examine spatial cognition in adults with hearing impairments. There were a total of 61 individuals in this study: thirty-six with hearing loss and 25 with normal hearing. The Spatial Orientation Test (SOT), the Mental Rotation test (MR), and the Money's Road Map Test (RMT) were administered to assess participants' spatial learning-orientation, mental imagery-rotation, and spatial navigation abilities. A high number of errors in RMT, high angle difference in SOT and a low score in MR suggest poor spatial abilities. Participants with hearing loss had a greater number of RMT errors and SOT angle difference, but lower MR scores than those with normal hearing (P < .001). Hearing impairment negatively impacted all 3 spatial cognitive assessments. Hearing loss was associated with a 6.9 increase in the number of RMT errors (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 4.8, 9), a 23.6 increase in the SOT angle difference (95% CI: 16, 31.2), and an 8.5 decrease in the MR score (95% CI: -10.8, -6.2). The study found that individuals with hearing loss exhibited lower performance in various cognitive tasks related to spatial orientation, navigation, spatial learning, mental imagery, and rotation abilities when compared to an age and sex matched control group. In future study, it is imperative to place greater emphasis on hearing loss as a potential detrimental factor in the prediction of spatial cognition impairment.

Vestibular therapy to reduce falls in people with Alzheimer’s disease: study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial

BackgroundFalls are highly common in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD); around two-thirds of AD patients fall annually. Fall events are major drivers of injury, early institutionalization, and shorter survival. Balance and mobility impairment are among the most important fall risk factors in AD patients. Vestibular therapy (VT) is an effective rehabilitation intervention in improving balance and fall risk through vestibular function, but not often used in AD. We want to evaluate the feasibility of using VT to reduce falls and improve balance function in patients with AD and drive use of an existing, potentially beneficial therapy in a patient population whose high level of vestibular deficits is currently unaddressed.MethodsThe proposed pilot clinical trial will be a parallel-group randomized controlled trial. Patients with a diagnosis of mild-moderate AD, age ≥ 60, and the presence of a caregiver will be recruited from the Johns Hopkins Memory and Alzheimer’s Treatment Center. Eligible patients will be offered vestibular testing. Patients with vestibular loss will be offered participation in the VT trial. One-hundred AD patients with vestibular loss will be enrolled and randomized 1:1 into the control and intervention arms of the trial. All patients will undergo baseline balance and cognitive assessment, followed by 8 weeks of active control therapy or VT, consisting of ~25-min office sessions with a vestibular therapist. Patients will be tracked for falls and undergo follow-up balance and cognitive assessment at 8 and 52 weeks (1 year) to assess the potential short-term and longer-term effects, respectively, of VT on balance and cognition. The main outcomes of this trial are falls, balance (using the Berg Balance Scale and the Timed Up and Go test), and cognition (using the clock drawing test, the Card Rotations test, the Money Road Map test, and the triangle completion task).DiscussionAs the population ages and the number of individuals with AD in the US grows to a projected 14 million in 2050, managing falls in AD will continue to grow as a critical public health concern; this trial assesses feasibility of a potential solution.Trial registrationClinicalTrial.Gov identifier — NCT03799991. Registered 01 August 2019.

Cognitive profile of patients with manganese-methcathinone encephalopathy

Manganese-methcathinone encephalopathy (MME) is a rare parkinsonian syndrome described in drug addicts who have self-injected a home-made mixture containing methcathinone and manganese. We assessed 14 patients with MME and compared their results with 14 matched control subjects. The patients had a parkinsonian syndrome with symmetrical bradykinesia, dystonias, and postural, gait and speech impairment, with moderate restrictions in activities of daily living. Their cognitive status was assessed with the Russian version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and with tests of attention (Trail Making Test, Bourdon-Wiersma Dot Cancellation Test), memory (Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure), motor skills (Grooved Pegboard), visuospatial skills (Money Road Map Test, Benton Judgment of Line Orientation), and executive abilities (Verbal Fluency, 5-Point Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). Only a few significant differences emerged. After controlling for multiple comparisons, the results in the WAIS Object Assembly subtest, the Grooved Pegboard test (dominant and nondominant hand) and the Verbal Fluency test remained significant.

A computerized spatial orientation test.

In three experiments, we compared performance on a paper-based perspective-taking task (the Spatial Orientation Test [SOT]; Hegarty & Waller, 2004) with performance on a computer-based version of the task. The computer-based version automates scoring angular errors, allows for different stimulus orders to be given to each participant, and allows for different testing time limits. In Experiment 1, the two media used different objects and mirror-image stimulus arrays in the two versions to mitigate the effects of memory for specific objects or responses. In Experiments 2 and 3, the two media used identical objects (also in a mirrored arrangement), to provide a more equivalent between-media comparison. We also substituted new objects for objects in the original version that had an inherent front/back (e.g., a car) and/or that were animate; directional or animate objects may add variance that is unrelated to perspective-taking ability. Experiment 3 used clarified instructions and a sample size sufficient to examine relatively small differences between the media as well as sex differences. Overall, the computer-based version produced performance that was similar to that of the paper-based version in terms of the rank-order of the participants. The new computer and paper versions of the SOT also had similar correlations with the Money Road Map test and the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction questionnaire, adding support to the claim that the computerized SOT is tapping into the same skill as the paper-based version. We provide a Java version of the new SOT, along with pdf files of instructions and practice stimuli, on the Open Science Framework website.

Enacting Space in Virtual Reality: A Comparison Between Money's Road Map Test and Its Virtual Version.

In the field of spatial cognition research the mutual relationship between perception and action that brings out spatial orientation was lately investigated. Besides, the sameness between creating a cognitive map from the exploration of a not simulated environment, from the use of an allocentric (survey-like) sketched map, and from the interaction with egocentric (route-like) 3D virtual environments, is generally contrived. To understand if different embodied affordances could provide different knowledge organization during wayfinding through the use of distinct spatial simulations, the same group of 61 healthy subjects experienced both the classical version of the Money’s Road Map test (M-RMT) and a virtual reality version of the Road Map test (VR-RMT). The M-RMT requires a allocentric to egocentric right/left reasoning to explore a stylized city provided in a survey perspective. The VR-RMT is a 3D version of the same environment through which participants can actively navigate by choosing egocentric-based right/left directions in a route perspective. The results showed that the different embodiments afforded by the two environments and the increasing complexity in turn types provides different spatial outcomes. Results were discussed according to the sensorimotor coupling theory provided from the enactive cognition approach and significances for spatial cognition research were provided.

Saccular Impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease Is Associated with Driving Difficulty

Background/Aims: Patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) experience increased rates of vestibular loss. Recent studies suggest that saccular impairment in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD patients is associated with impaired spatial cognitive function. However, the impact of saccular impairment on everyday behaviors that rely on spatial cognitive function is unknown. Methods: We recruited 60 patients (21 MCI and 39 AD) from an interdisciplinary Memory Clinic. Saccular function was measured, and a visuospatial questionnaire was administered to assess whether participants experienced impairments in terms of driving difficulty, losing objects, falls, and fear of falling. Results: In multiple logistic regression analyses, MCI and AD patients with bilateral saccular impairment had a significant, greater than 12-fold odds of driving difficulty (OR 12.1, 95% CI 1.2, 117.7) compared to MCI and AD patients with normal saccular function, and the association appears to be mediated by spatial cognition as measured by the Money Road Map Test. Conclusion: This study suggests a novel link between saccular impairment and driving difficulty in MCI and AD patients and demonstrates that driving difficulty may be a real-world manifestation of impaired spatial cognition associated with saccular impairment.

Vestibular Loss Predicts Poorer Spatial Cognition in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

The vestibular system is an important contributor to balance control, spatial orientation, and falls risk. Recent evidence has shown that Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients have a higher prevalence of vestibular impairment relative to healthy controls. We sought to evaluate whether vestibular loss is specifically associated with poor spatial cognitive skills among patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. We enrolled 50 patients (22 MCI and 28 AD) from an interdisciplinary Memory Clinic and measured vestibular physiologic function in all patients. Spatial cognitive function was assessed using the Money Road Map Test (MRMT) and the Trail Making Test Part B (TMT-B). General cognitive function was assessed with the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE). In multivariable linear regression analyses adjusted for age, gender, education level, and MMSE, MCI and AD patients with vestibular loss made significantly more errors on the MRMT relative to patients with normal vestibular function (β= 7.3, 95% CI 2.4, 12.1 for unilateral vestibular loss and β= 6.4, 95% CI 1.9, 10.9 for bilateral vestibular loss). We further stratified AD patients into "spatially normal" and "spatially impaired" groups based on MRMT performance, and found that the prevalence of vestibular loss was significantly higher in the spatially impaired AD group relative to the spatially normal AD group. These findings support the hypothesis that vestibular loss contributes specifically to a decline in spatial cognitive ability in MCI and AD patients, independently of general cognitive decline, and may predict a "spatially impaired" subtype of AD.

Self-rated right–left confusability and performance on the Money Road-Map Test

This study assessed the relationship between self-rated right-left confusability and performance on the Money Road-Map Test (MRMT). Eighty-six undergraduate university students (44 women and 42 men) rated right-left subjective confusability using a questionnaire, and then completed the MRMT. Low- and high-confusability groups were determined using self-rated confusability scores. The high-confusability participants were less accurate and slower than the low-confusability participants in completing the MRMT. Self-confusability ratings significantly correlated with both accuracy scores and completion times on the MRMT. Although, women showed a significantly greater inclination than men to judge themselves as being more prone to confusion in right-left discrimination, the male advantage was not observed in terms of accuracy of response: there was a significant difference only in the completion time on the MRMT.

Analysis of the Money Road-Map Test performance in normal and brain-damaged subjects

The Money Road-Map Test (MRMT) is a paper and pencil assessment of left-right discrimination. Some of the answers require an egocentric mental rotation in space. In a first experiment with 63 normal adults, we found that the accuracy and speed of the left-right decision process significantly decreased with a increasing degree of mental rotation required. A division of the MRMT turns in three categories with increasing mental rotation was proposed. In a second study (n = 50), patients with predominantly parietal brain lesions performed significantly worse than patients with predominantly frontal lesions. The significant group difference in total error score was especially due to the error scores of turns requiring mental rotation. The turn type analysis did not contribute to the lateralization of the lesions.

Analysis of the Money Road-Map Test performance in normal and brain-damaged subjects

Analysis of the Money Road-Map Test performance in normal and brain-damaged subjects

Neuropsychological test performance in trichotillomania: A further link with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Two neuropsychological tests, the Money Road Map test and the Stylus Maze, which had previously distinguished obsessive-compulsive patients from normal controls, were administered to 21 female patients with severe trichotillomania (an irresistible compulsion to pull out one's hair), and the results were compared with those of age- and sex-matched groups with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) ( n =12), other anxiety disorders ( n=17), and normal controls ( n=16). The trichotillo-mania group had significantly more errors than normal controls on the Stylus Maze, but not on the Road Map test. The OCD group differed significantly from normal controls in the number of rule breaks on the Stylus Maze. Within the trichotillomania group, errors on the two tasks correlated with symptom severity and predicted clinical response to clomipramine. Results are examined in terms of possible links between trichotillomania and OCD, and a neurobiological perspective of trichotillomania is discussed.

Deficit in cognitive shifting ability in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Reports on cognitive test deficits in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders and interpretations of the underlying dysfunction have been conflicting. In the present study, 15 obsessive-compulsive patients were compared with 15 matched normal controls on three types of test sensitive to: spatial ability, ability to shift cognitive set, and combinations of both. Performance deficits as compared with controls were shown in Block Design, the Short Wisconsin Card Sort, the Word Fluency Test, and on the Money Road Map Test. No deficits were present on a number of other measures. The pattern of results is interpreted partly as revealing deficits in ability to shift cognitive set, more particularly with nonverbal material.

A clinical field study of eight automated psychometric procedures: the Leicester/DHSS project

Eight psychological tests were administered to 367 subjects at five clinical sites employing an automated testing system incorporating an optional touch-sensitive screen for patient response. The number of tests undertaken by any given subject varied, but the majority of subjects were tested in an alternate-form test-retest design. It was clearly demonstrated that it is possible to produce psychometrically parallel computerized versions of existing tests, but certain tests were found less amenable to computerization. Good reliabilities were obtained on the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale, Standard Progressive Matrices and all scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire with the exception of the P scale. Reliability on the Money Road Map Test was acceptable, but reliability on the two Differential Aptitude Tests was disappointing. Certain of the tests produced significantly different scores on the two versions of the tests. Two of the tests studied were completed more rapidly on the computer. Cautious recommendations are made for the continuing use of the computerized versions of the tests.