title: A selective egocentric topographical working memory deficit in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease: a preliminary study.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine whether an egocentric topographical working memory (WM) deficit is present in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with respect to other forms of visuospatial WM. Further, we would investigate whether this deficit could be present in patients having AD without topographical disorientation (TD) signs in everyday life assessed through an informal interview to caregivers. Seven patients with AD and 20 healthy participants performed the Walking Corsi Test and the Corsi Block-Tapping Test. The former test requires memorizing a sequence of places by following a path and the latter is a well-known visuospatial memory task. Patients with AD also performed a verbal WM test to exclude the presence of general WM impairments. Preliminary results suggest that egocentric topographical WM is selectively impaired, with respect to visuospatial and verbal WM, even without TD suggesting an important role of this memory in the early stages of AD.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy filippo.bianchini@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bianchini
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Vita
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy Life, Health and Environmental Science Department, University of L'Aquila, L' Aquila, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Piccardi
authors.affiliation: Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology Unit, San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital, Rome Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blundo
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guariglia
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003221:Confusion / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D065852:Spatial Memory
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Corsi Block-Tapping Test; environmental human navigation; topographical disorientation; working memory