Alessandro O Caffò1, Antonella Lopez1, Giuseppina Spano1, Silvia Serino2,3, Pietro Cipresso3, Fabrizio Stasolla4, Michelina Savino1, Giulio E Lancioni4, Giuseppe Riva2,3, Andrea Bosco1. 1. a Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication , University of Studies of Bari , Bari , Italy. 2. b Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab , IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano , Milan , Italy. 3. c Department of Psychology , Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Milan , Italy. 4. d Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs , University of Studies of Bari , Bari , Italy.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The study is focused on the assessment of reorientation skills in a sample of community-dwelling elderly people, manipulating landmarks and geometric (layout) information. METHOD: A neuropsychological assessment was administered to 286 elderly participants, divided into six groups (healthy controls, HC; four subgroups of participants with mild cognitive impairment, MCI; participants with probable dementia, Prob_D) and tested with the Virtual Reorientation Test (VReoT). VReoT manipulated different spatial cues: geometry and landmarks (proximal and distal). RESULT: Compared with HC, participants with MCI and Prob_D showed to be impaired in tasks involving geometry, landmarks and a combination of them. Both single and multiple domain impairment in MCI had an impact on reorientation performance. Moreover, VReoT was marginally able to discriminate between amnesic and non-amnesic MCI. The occurrence of getting lost events seemed to be associated to learning of geometric information. CONCLUSION: The associative strength between landmark and target plays an important role in affecting spatial orientation performance of cognitively impaired participants. Geometry significantly supports landmark information and becomes helpful with the increase of cognitive impairment which is linked to a decrement in landmark encoding. VReoT seems to represent a reliable evaluation supplement for spatial orientation deficits in prodromal stages of dementia.
OBJECTIVES: The study is focused on the assessment of reorientation skills in a sample of community-dwelling elderly people, manipulating landmarks and geometric (layout) information. METHOD: A neuropsychological assessment was administered to 286 elderly participants, divided into six groups (healthy controls, HC; four subgroups of participants with mild cognitive impairment, MCI; participants with probable dementia, Prob_D) and tested with the Virtual Reorientation Test (VReoT). VReoT manipulated different spatial cues: geometry and landmarks (proximal and distal). RESULT: Compared with HC, participants with MCI and Prob_D showed to be impaired in tasks involving geometry, landmarks and a combination of them. Both single and multiple domain impairment in MCI had an impact on reorientation performance. Moreover, VReoT was marginally able to discriminate between amnesic and non-amnesic MCI. The occurrence of getting lost events seemed to be associated to learning of geometric information. CONCLUSION: The associative strength between landmark and target plays an important role in affecting spatial orientation performance of cognitively impaired participants. Geometry significantly supports landmark information and becomes helpful with the increase of cognitive impairment which is linked to a decrement in landmark encoding. VReoT seems to represent a reliable evaluation supplement for spatial orientation deficits in prodromal stages of dementia.
Authors: Stefan J Teipel; Chimezie O Amaefule; Stefan Lüdtke; Doreen Görß; Sofia Faraza; Sven Bruhn; Thomas Kirste Journal: Front Psychol Date: 2022-04-25