Research Article
The Contribution of Allocentric Impairments to the Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-030-01093-5_11, author={Silvia Serino and Francesca Morganti and Desir\'{e}e Colombo and Giuseppe Riva}, title={The Contribution of Allocentric Impairments to the Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease}, proceedings={Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health. 7th International Conference, MindCare 2018, Boston, MA, USA, January 9--10, 2018, Proceedings}, proceedings_a={MINDCARE}, year={2018}, month={10}, keywords={Allocentric abilities Spatial navigation Virtual Reality Alzheimer’s Disease}, doi={10.1007/978-3-030-01093-5_11} }- Silvia Serino
Francesca Morganti
Desirèe Colombo
Giuseppe Riva
Year: 2018
The Contribution of Allocentric Impairments to the Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease
MINDCARE
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-01093-5_11
Abstract
An early decline in navigation abilities is one of the first sign of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). More specifically, it has been suggested that allocentric impairments contribute significantly to this pathological decline. In this vein, the objective of the current work was to investigate the contribution of different spatial abilities involved in navigation (including allocentric ones) to the cognitive decline. Thirty elderly participated in the study, divided into two groups: Fifteen cognitively healthy aged individuals and fifteen individuals with AD. Our results showed that patients with AD performed significantly poorer in almost all tests evaluating spatial abilities in comparison to cognitively healthy aged individuals. Interestingly, we found that the allocentric abilities were the only significant predictor of the cognitive decline. Overall, these results suggested the primary role of allocentric impairments in contributing to the cognitive pathological decline.
