Abstract
Spatial cognition is a complex cognitive domain that includes orientation and navigation in an environment. Human navigation involves 1. egocentric navigation depending on the own body movement in the environment, and 2. allocentric navigation based on the spatial relationships of individual landmarks.
These parallel processes result in the so-called cognitive map, a mental representation of the space dependent predominantly on the function of the hippocampal formation. Navigation capability develops gradually during early ontogeny, where egocentric processes occur earlier than the allocentric ones.
Alterations in spatial cognition are characteristic also for various neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders and thus they may serve as diagnostic markers. For instance, more complex allocentric navigation is affected already in mild cognitive impairment preceding Alzheimer's disease.
Similar findings are also typical for patients suffering from schizophrenia.