Using a specially developed game based off Duke Nukem, the researchers created a virtual town and, after familiarizing players with the locale, challenged them to locate landmarks within a strict time limit. The more depressed a player, the less locations they visited.

The actual science behind the experiment involves the hippocampus, a section of the brain involved in spatial memory. The shrinking of the hippocampus has been linked to depression, leading Gould to postulate an experiment under which she could test a patient's spatial memory.