An immersive virtual reality-based object-location memory task reveals spatial long-term memory alterations in Long-COVID
[EN] Object-location memory (OLM) is a type of declarative memory for spatial information and consists of the individual¿s ability to establish accurate associations between objects and their spatial locations. Long-COVID describes the long-term effects of the COVID-19 disease. Long-COVID patients s...
| Autores: | , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) |
| Repositorio: | RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/221236 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/221236 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Spatial memory COVID Virtual reality Span Cognition Neuropsychology |
| Sumario: | [EN] Object-location memory (OLM) is a type of declarative memory for spatial information and consists of the individual¿s ability to establish accurate associations between objects and their spatial locations. Long-COVID describes the long-term effects of the COVID-19 disease. Long-COVID patients show medial temporal lobe dysfunction and neuropsychological alterations affecting memory. This study aimed to assess OLM in a group of Long-COVID patients, n=66, and a Control group of healthy individuals with similar age and sex composition, n=21, using an immersive virtual reality (iVR)-based OLM task. We also explored associations between the performance in the iVR-based OLM task and general cognitive function (MoCA), and both verbal (VSTM) and visuospatial (SSTM) span. The Long-COVID group showed fewer correct responses, made more task attempts, and invested more time in the iVR-based OLM task than the Control group. Delayed memory was more severely altered than immediate memory in Long-COVID participants. Better MoCA scores of the Long-COVID group were strongly associated with shorter times to complete the immediate recall of the iVR-based OLM task. Besides, the months elapsed since the COVID-19 infection were slightly associated with fewer correct responses in the immediate and 24-hour recalls. These results corroborate previous findings of memory alterations in the Long-COVID syndrome using an iVR-based OLM task, adding new evidence on spatial memory and long-term memory in this population. Implementing spatial iVR tasks to clinical research may improve our understanding of neuropsychological disorders. |
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