A study from the University of Cambridge (Great Britain) led by Dr Dennis Chan has developed a virtual reality navigation test offered to patients who are at risk of developing a form of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease. During this test, the patient puts on a virtual reality headset and must move around in a simulated environment. The success of the task requires an intact functioning of the entorhinal cortex, one of the first regions of the brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The poor functioning of this part of the brain is therefore one of the first symptoms of the disease.
We can follow the development of the disease on smartphone
The researchers recruited 45 patients with mild cognitive impairment. This deficiency can indicate early Alzheimer’s disease, but it can also be caused by anxiety and still be a normal sign of aging. They also recruited 41 age-matched healthy controls for the test comparison.
At the end of this test, all the patients suffering from cognitive impairment showed poorer performance. But among these, those whose biological analysis indicated the presence of Alzheimer’s disease, showed the poorest performance.
“These results suggest that a virtual reality navigation test may be more effective in identifying a early Alzheimer’s diseasethan the tests we currently use in the clinic”, said Dr. Chan.
The latter envisages the development of applications for smartphones which would not only make it possible to make an early diagnosis but also to follow the patients in their daily activities and to see the possible degradations. caused by dementia.
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