These are you always getting lost? Maybe you have trouble remembering the route of a trip you’ve taken countless times.
Do you struggle to find your way around unfamiliar areas, such as at work, or in familiar buildings?
If your sense of direction is embarrassingly non-existent — and it’s a problem you’ve had since childhood — it could be down to developmental topographical disorientation or DTD, a disorder that researchers in Canada suggest affects up to 2 per cent of the population.
This same Canadian team has also created an online set of diagnostic tests. They are now working on a virtual reality program to assist people affected by the condition.
It is notable that most of those with the condition are capable in all other areas of life, and do not have cognitive impairments.
It seems that they suffer from a form of ‘directional dyslexia’ which means their navigational skills may be impaired, or completely lacking in certain cases.
‘People with DTD come from all sorts of careers — they are lawyers, teachers, cleaners and writers,’ says Professor Giuseppe Iaria, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Calgary, who first identified the condition.
Your sense of direction may be affected by developmental topographical diorientation (stock photo). This disorder can affect up to 2%.
“They lead a very normal lifestyle with little attention and memory loss. Their problem is their inability to map out the world around them. This is something many people are capable of doing without thinking.
“Normally, people have the ability to recreate their route visually in their heads, but DTD users don’t.
Prof. Iaria is a recognized expert in spatial orientation skills and discovered DTD after being asked to help a friend who was lost at home.
After extensive testing, he determined that this professional woman of middle age had not suffered any neurological damages or cognitive impairments due to brain injury or dementia.
Instead, he believed she probably had an issue with brain connectivity — how parts of the brain communicate with each other and work together.
He determined that there were insufficient connections between the brains of different regions to enable good navigation skills and orientation.
Later, MRI tests involving people with DTD confirmed this.
Although their brains functioned in different areas, when it comes to navigation, the two regions were not able to connect with one another.
Professor Iaria explains that navigation requires the use of many brain regions, such as the ones responsible for perception, attention and memory.
After extensive research, it was discovered that DTD patients could function in all areas of their brains, however, they were unable to connect together enough to make cognitive maps.
These people seem to be coping very well. There is no reason to shame them.
‘We don’t know what causes DTD, but the condition does seem to be highly hereditary — so, if you have DTD, it is likely someone in your family has a very poor sense of direction, too.’
There are many reasons people might get lost. For example, severe attention issues and memory loss. Professor Iaria’s research focuses only on individuals who function well in all other ways than their navigational skills.
A team of Canadian researchers have created a set of online diagnostic tests and are currently working on a virtual reality programme to help people with the condition (stock image)
He and his research team at the University of Calgary created a forum called Getting Lost to help people with this condition.
The site’s members have made it clear that DTD can cause anxiety and stress. Some even admit to having severe difficulties following simple directions.
Others confessed to blindly following strangers for fear of getting lost — one woman from the East Coast of the U.S. said she frequently told people that she was from Los Angeles, on the West Coast, because she was so ashamed of being unable to navigate around her own neighbourhood.
Nearly all the participants relied on Google Maps or other navigational apps to navigate around even though they were not familiar with certain places.
Recent interactive tests have been developed by Professor Iaria’s team as part of his diagnostic process.
The results of these tests have revealed that DTD patients have limited spatial orientation. This means that they cannot see the relationships between objects such as buildings.
Also, they have trouble recognizing landmarks from multiple angles and perspectives.
Hugo Spiers from University College London, professor of cognitive neuroscience, says that “How we navigate” is one of neuroscience’s most studied topics.
“Spatial orientation has no relationship to intelligence or other abilities. It is unique.” DTD is something that you cannot talk to your doctor about.
Although there’s no solution to DTD, the University of Calgary team has created a 12-day intensive computerized training program that takes place in Centerville, a virtual community.
The aim is to try to develop participants’ navigational skills — and build connections between the otherwise disconnected regions in the brain.
It involves sitting in front a monitor for long periods of time, immersed into the virtual world.
It all begins in a virtual home. You will start at the corner shop and work your way up to the other destinations.
They must continue the journey until they discover the “right way”.
While the program has been tested with young volunteers with normal skills in orienteering to increase their navigation ability, Professor Iaria feels it may be of benefit to people with DTD.
He states that although the programme can help all people with navigational issues it is likely to have more impact on those children who are identified as lacking a sense of direction.
Researchers will next test the program on DTD patients older than 50.
They hope that their virtual reality testing will allow them to make mental maps again in the real world.
For more information visit gettinglost.ca