Early Alzheimer’s disease: here is the first sign to watch out for

Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease affects people between the ages of 50 and 60, according to the Brain Institute. Symptoms are typically memory, attention, language, visuospatial, and executive deficits. According to a new study published in the journal Current Biologya poor sense of direction could also be a symptom of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

First sign of early Alzheimer’s disease: 110 people tested

To achieve this result, researchers from theUniversity College London analyzed data from 110 participants, including 31 young and healthy volunteers, 36 older and healthy volunteers, as well as 43 with moderate cognitive decline.

With a virtual reality headset, they had to walk along a path marked by numbered cones. They then had to return to the starting point under three conditions: the exact same route, a path where ground details were replaced by a smooth surface, and a route where all landmarks had been removed.

Results: People with early Alzheimer’s disease overestimated turns and had a poor sense of direction. According to the authors, this last point is one of the symptoms of early Alzheimer’s.

First sign of early Alzheimer’s disease: what treatments?

“Our results offer a new avenue for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, which would focus on specific orientation errors, explains it Dr Andrea Castegnaromain author of this study, in a communicated. However, we are aware that these results need to be confirmed by other studies.”

Treatments for early Alzheimer’s disease are the same as those for older people. But according to France Alzheimeryoung patients need appropriate care, including cognitive stimulation to preserve cognitive, emotional, behavioral and social abilities.

In France, 33,000 patients under the age of 60 have Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Brain Institute.