Navigation ability in patients with acquired brain injury: A population-wide online study

Figures & data

Figure 1. A screenshot of the navigation task indicating one of the eight landmarks in the environment.

Table 1. Demographics of ABI patients and sample of pre and post-matched healthy controls.

Variable	ABI (N = 435)	Control (matched) (N = 435)	Control (unmatched) (N = 7474)
Gender (% female)	71.7	71.5	65.2
Age, years, M (SD)	54.62 (12.48)	54.56 (16.39)	51.11 (17.52)
Education*, M (SD)	5.68 (0.84)	5.7 (0.83)	6.05 (0.80)
Residence type (% Urban)	63.4	67.1	70.4
Spatial experience, M (SD)	2.12 (0.63)	2.08 (0.49)	2.28 (0.59)

* Education was measured on the Verhage Scale (range 1–7), a Dutch categorization of education level, with higher scores reflecting higher education levels (Verhage, 1964).

Table 2. Overview of subjective navigation impairments within subcategories of the ABI population.

			% Impaired on separate WQ scales^b
ABI patient Characteristics (N = 435)	%	% Impaired^a	NO	DE	SA
ABI Type
Stroke	45.1	42.9	21.4	24	21.9
Traumatic	23.0	36.0	19	22.0	16
Brain Tumour	6.9	26.7	16.7	16.7	16.7
Intoxication	1.8	62.5	25	12.5	37.5
Infection	4.8	42.9	9.5	19.0	33.5
Epilepsy	5.1	31.8	22.7	18.2	18.2
MS	4.1	27.8	11.1	22.2	11.1
Hypoxia	3.2	57.1	28.6	35.7	50
Other/Unknown	6	30.8	7.7	15.4	23.1
ABI afflicted hemisphere
Left	26	40.7	22.1	24.8	13
Right	21.8	41.1	20	22.1	10.9
Bilateral	14.5	34.9	20.6	22.2	7.2
Unknown	37.7	38.4	15.9	20.1	18.9
ABI onset
Acute phase (0-12 months)	7.4	40.6	15.6	18.8	25
Chronic phase (> 12 moths)	86.9	40.2	20.6	23.5	21.4
Unknown	5.7	20.0	0	4	16

^a Impaired on at least one of the Wayfinding questionnaire scales.

^b NO: Navigation & orientation scale, DE: Distance estimation scale, SA: Spatial anxiety scale.

Figure 2. Scores on the subscales of the Wayfinding questionnaire. Error bars represent standard error of the mean. * Indicates a significant difference between the control and ABI populations.

Table 3. Comparison of objective navigation impairment between the control and ABI population.

			ABI	Control (matched)	Contrasts
Navigation	Max. score	Chance level score	M (SD)	M (SD)	F	df	p
Landmark Recognition	8	4	6.68 (1.15)	6.84 (1.06)	4.33	1, 434	.038^a
Egocentric Location	4	0.67	1.18 (0.89)	1.23 (0.93)	0.65	1, 434	.421
Allocentric Location	4	1	1.77 (1.08)	1.92 (1.09)	4.41	1, 434	.036^a
Path Route knowledge	4	1.75	2.38 (1.02)	2.56 (0.93)	7.35	1, 434	.007^a
Path Survey knowledge	4	1.33	2.31 (1.08)	2.40 (1.03)	1.67	1, 434	.197

^a Indicates significant difference between the control and ABI populations.

Table 4. Overview of objective navigation score for the 5 subtasks per brain injury type, onset time and location of brain injury.

Participant characteristics		Navigation subtasks^a
Description	% of ABI group	Landmark Recognition	Location: Egocentric	Location: Allocentric	Path: Routes	Path: Survey
		M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Healthy Control	-	6.84 (1.05)	1.23 (0.93)	1.92 (1.09)	2.56 (0.93)	2.40 (1.03)
ABI Type
Stroke	45.1	6.68 (1.15)	1.12 (0.93)	1.69 (1.04)	2.34 (1.01)	2.25 (1.12)
Traumatic	23.0	6.73 (1.20)	1.12 (0.95)	1.89 (1.02)	2.37 (1.09)	2.36 (1.02)
Brain Tumour	6.9	6.63 (1.07)	1.30 (0.75)	2.20 (0.99)	2.33 (1.09)	2.47 (0.94)
Intoxication	1.8	6.00 (1.95)	1.25 (0.87)	1.75 (1.04)	2.25 (1.04)	1.75 (1.39)
Infection	4.8	6.81 (0.93)	1.05 (0.67)	1.57 (1.12)	2.33 (0.97)	2.48 (1.29)
Epilepsy	5.1	6.77 (1.19)	1.55 (0.86)	1.91 (1.23)	2.41 (0.91)	2.55 (0.80)
MS	4.1	7.11 (0.96)	1.44 (0.92)	2.06 (1.11)	2.61 (0.98)	2.44 (1.19)
Hypoxia	3.2	6.43 (1.09)	1.14 (0.53)	1.50 (1.40)	2.21 (0.97)	2.21 (0.89)
Other/Unknown	6	5.89 (1.24)	1.38 (0.94)	1.46 (1.17)	2.85 (0.97)	2.15 (1.16)
ABI afflicted hemisphere
Left	26	6.81 (1.00)	1.29 (0.89)	1.82 (1.09)	2.43 (1.03)	2.46 (0.99)
Right	21.8	6.43 (1.25)	1.08 (0.91)	1.84 (1.08)	2.39 (1.03)	2.27 (1.23)
Bilateral	14.5	6.91 (1.17)	1.02 (0.92)	1.75 (1.06)	2.35 (1.05)	2.27 (1.09)
Unknown	37.7	6.64 (1.15)	1.23 (0.88)	1.71 (1.08)	2.36 (1.01)	2.24 (1.05)
ABI onset
Acute phase (0–12 months)	7.4	6.88 (1.24)	1.34 (0.91)	1.72 (1.14)	2.25 (1.02)	2.25 (1.11)
Chronic phase (>12 months)	86.9	6.66 (1.14)	1.17 (0.91)	1.79 (1.06)	2.37 (1.03)	2.33 (1.08)
Unknown	5.7	6.72 (1.14)	1.20 (0.87)	1.44 (1.16)	2.72 (1.02)	2.04 (1.09)

^a The maximum and chance level scores for each subtask is presented in Table 3.

Verhage, F. (1964). Intelligence and age: Study with Dutch people aged 12-77. Van Gorcum.

 Google Scholar