Specific navigational errors may indicate early signs of Alzheimer’s disease

The study, published in Current Biology, used a computational model to further explore the intricacies of navigational errors previously observed in Alzheimer's disease.

The task was performed under three different environmental conditions aimed at stressing the participant's navigational skills: an unchanged virtual environment, the ground details being replaced by a plain texture, and the temporary removal of all landmarks from the virtual reality world. Joint first author, Dr Andrea Castegnaro , said: "Our findings offer a new avenue for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by focusing on specific navigational errors. However, we know that more work is needed to confirm these early findings.

It is estimated that there are currently 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK and over 60% of those diagnosed are thought to have Alzheimer's disease.

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