Poor sense of direction may mean you have Alzheimer’s

HAVING a poor sense of direction could be an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s, a study suggests.

Data from an ongoing trial from University College London (UCL) show that people at risk of the disease have poor spatial navigation before other early problems, like memory issues, emerge.

It is hoped the findings might lead to the development of a diagnostic support tool for the NHS.

The research used virtual reality to test the ability of 100 asymptomatic adults aged 43 to 66 to determine and maintain a route from one place to another in virtual reality.

Participants were high-risk for Alzheimer’s, such as having the APOE-4 gene, a family history or a poor lifestyle.

The researchers found the relationship between spatial skills and Alzheimer’s risk in men, but not women.

The findings suggest impairments in spatial navigation may begin to develop years, or even decades, before the onset of any other symptoms, the experts say.

“Our results indicated that this type of navigation behaviour change might represent the very earliest diagnostic signal in the Alzheimer’s disease continuum – when people move from being unimpaired to showing manifestation of the disease,” said study author Dr Coco Newton, who carried out the work at the University of Cambridge.

The study – published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association – used a test in which people were asked to navigate within a virtual environment wearing VR headsets.

Dr Newton added: “We are now taking these findings forward to develop a diagnostic clinical decision support tool for the NHS in the coming years, which is a new way of approaching diagnostics and will hopefully help people to get a more timely and accurate diagnosis.

“This is particularly important with the emergence of anti-amyloid treatments for Alzheimer’s, which are considered to be most effective in the earliest stages of the disease.

“It also highlights the need for further study of the differing vulnerability of men and women to Alzheimer’s disease and the importance of taking gender into account for both diagnosis and future treatment.”