(CN) — For a life-altering disease like Alzheimer’s, early detection is critical to treatment, and according to researchers at the University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, impairment in spatial navigation skills — even decades before the onset of the disease — could be a key indicator of future risk.
In a study published Thursday in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, researchers tested 100 asymptomatic patients — aged 43-66, with genetic, familial or lifestyle risks of developing Alzheimer’s — in a “pure test of navigation” to measure their spatial navigation skills.
The virtual reality test used in the study — developed by University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience's Andrea Castegnaro and Neil Burgess — instructed the subjects to navigate to three digital objects in a triangle path, which disappeared when reached. Then, after they reached the third point, the subject would have to recall the location of the first object and navigate back to it.
Dennis Chan, the lead researcher on the study — conducted in collaboration with the University of Cambridge — likened the test to “dead reckoning” used by sailors.
Chan and his colleagues found that, regardless of what risk factors they had, and regardless of age or level of education, the people at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s had troubles with the spatial navigation test, even if they had no trouble with a cognitive test.
Researchers also found that the spatial impairment presented entirely in men, while none of the women in the study group showed that impairment. Given that women are twice as likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s as men, this finding, according to lead author Coco Newton, “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.”
Newton, also of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, led the study’s subject-facing team at Cambridge University, and said in a statement that this kind of spatial impairment “might represent the very earliest diagnostic signal” for Alzheimer’s, appearing years, if not decades, before the onset of any other symptoms.
Drug treatments like the emerging anti-amyloid treatments are most effective when prescribed as early as possible. As such, Newton hopes that this new diagnostic method may “hopefully help people to get a more timely and accurate diagnosis.”
Researchers and funders alike see VR technology, as well as the related field of augmented reality tech, could be promising for routine clinical use in the near future.
Chan also hopes the VR navigation test will help overcome the “knowledge gap” of the link between how Alzheimer’s forms at the neuron level in the brain and how it clinically manifests. That gap, he said in a statement, “currently represents one of the biggest barriers to progress in Alzheimer’s research.”
Chan and his team have also received funding from the National Institute for Health Research for a project aimed at developing these clinical-use technologies, in partnership with a molecular biologist Karen Duff , Nobel Laureate Professor and cellular neuroscientist John O’Keefe, and cellular neuroscientist Julija Krupic. They hope to complete their work by 2028.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
