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Idiothetic orientation and path integration in unilateral hippocampal atrophy and sclerosis
pp. 301 - 309
Gerald Wiest, Christian Müller, Judith Glück, et al.

ABSTRACT: We determined the effects of hippocampal lesions on idiothetic spatial orientation by exposing 14 patients with unilateral hippocampal atrophy and/or sclerosis (HAS) and 10 normal controls to random rotational displacements \pm 30^\circ -- 180^\circ ) in darkness and examined their ability to rotate themselves back to the initial position. In comparison to controls, the patients responses were distinctly hypometric ( p<0.005 ). Patients with right hippocampal lesions showed a trend towards higher come back errors p = 0.08 ). Normal controls could maintain their accuracy over five consecutive trials. Patients, beginning with less accuracy, showed significant improvement after each trial ( p<0.001 ). The findings suggest that unilateral HAS impair the immediate recall of idiothetic spatial information, but does not affect long-term spatial learning.