| Objective Applying the self-developed tool to assess the effects of age and vestibular function on visuospatial ability,analyze the relationship between age,vestibular function and visuospatial ability,and further investigate the factors related to the relationship between vestibular function and visuospatial ability.Methods 1.The healthy subjects were divided into the elderly group,the middle-aged group and the young group according to age.The Visuospatial Cognition Assessment System(VCAS)was used to evaluate the spatial memory,spatial navigation and mental rotation abilities of the subjects.Comparing the results of different groups in each task to analyze the effect of aging on visuospatial ability and the changing trend of visuospatial ability with aging.2.Clinical patients aged 60 years and older with a history of vertigo who failed at least one vestibular function test were included as the patient group,and healthy subjects grouped by age as described previously were used as the control group to analyze the differences in performance between the patient and control groups on each VCAS test task.To further investigate the factors that may mediate the relationship between vestibular function and visuospatial ability,the self-developed Visuospatial Ability Screening Questionnaire was used to assess the visuospatial ability of patients with recurrent vertigo.The Dizziness Handicap Inventory(DHI),Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7(GAD-7),and Patient Health Questionnaire-9(PHQ-9)were used to quantify the degree of vertigo,anxiety,and depression of patients with vertigo,respectively.Comparing the differences in the total score and the scores of each dimension in the Visuospatial Ability Screening Questionnaire among patients with different age,gender,education,disease duration,and degree of vertigo.Results 1.For span and velocity in the weeding test,time in all maps in the maze test,reaction time in the 3D driving test,and score in the card rotation test,there were no statistically significant differences between the elderly and middle-aged groups(P>0.05),and the younger group performed significantly better than these two groups(P<0.05).There were no significant differences between groups in the number of steps in all maps in the maze test,the number of errors in the 3D driving test and the time spent in the card rotation test(P>0.05).2.Compared with the age-matched elderly group,there were statistically significant differences in the span of the forward condition in the weeding test(P<0.001)and the time spent on map 8×8 and map 12×12 on the maze test(P=0.009,P=0.032).At the subject level,the span of the forward condition in the weeding test was significantly longer than that in the backwards condition(P<0.001),but there was no significant difference among the patients(P=0.648).Except for gender,education level,and disease duration,there were significant inter-group differences between scores on the Visuospatial Cognition Screening Questionnaire among patients of different ages and different degrees of vertigo.(P<0.05).Except for age,scores of DHI,GAD-7 and PHQ-9 were significantly and positively correlated with total Visuospatial Cognition Screening Questionnaire scores(r=0.412,P<0.001;r=0.447,P<0.001;r=0.387,P<0.001).Except for the PHQ-9,there was a significant effect of DHI score and GAD-7 score on the visuospatial cognition screening questionnaire score(β=0.226,t=2.062,P=0.042;β=0.275,t=2.213,P=0.029).Conclusion 1.The effect of aging on the visuospatial ability of healthy people is mainly reflected in spatial memory.Visuospatial ability decreased first and then stabilized with aging.2.Vestibular dysfunction is a risk factor for the decline of visuospatial ability.The degree of vertigo disorder and anxiety are the main influencing factors that mediate the relationship between vestibular function and visuospatial ability.The more severe the degree of vertigo and the higher the possibility of anxiety,the worse the visuospatial ability. |
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