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Egocentric spatial orientation differences between Alzheimer’s disease at early stages and mild cognitive impairment: a diagnostic aid

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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a growing global crisis. Egocentric spatial orientation deteriorates with age and more significantly with AD. A simple and quick virtual reality (VR) localization and target finding technique is presented as a diagnostic aid to screen mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from AD. Spatial orientation data from 93 individuals (65 AD at a mild stage, 20 MCI, and 8 other dementia types) based on VR localization of a target on a landmark-less cubic 3-story building were analyzed. We hypothesize AD and MCI groups’ performances are significantly different. AD and MCI spatial performances were statistically significantly (p < 0.001) different. These results plus the longitudinal tracking of three patients who developed AD over a period of 5 years suggest the proposed spatial tests may be used as a quick and simple clinical diagnostic aid to separate AD at early to mild stages from MCI.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada (950–21162, 2009–05-01).

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T5V6, Canada

    Zahra Moussavi, Kazushige Kimura & Brian Lithgow

Authors
  1. Zahra Moussavi
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  2. Kazushige Kimura
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  3. Brian Lithgow
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Correspondence to Zahra Moussavi.

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Moussavi, Z., Kimura, K. & Lithgow, B. Egocentric spatial orientation differences between Alzheimer’s disease at early stages and mild cognitive impairment: a diagnostic aid. Med Biol Eng Comput 60, 501–509 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-021-02478-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-021-02478-9

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