Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Dec;29(8):749-54.
doi: 10.1177/1533317514536597. Epub 2014 Jun 5.

A selective egocentric topographical working memory deficit in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease: a preliminary study

F Bianchini  1 , A Di Vita  2 , L Palermo  3 , L Piccardi  4 , C Blundo  5 , C Guariglia  3
Affiliations

A selective egocentric topographical working memory deficit in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease: a preliminary study

F Bianchini et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether an egocentric topographical working memory (WM) deficit is present in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with respect to other forms of visuospatial WM. Further, we would investigate whether this deficit could be present in patients having AD without topographical disorientation (TD) signs in everyday life assessed through an informal interview to caregivers. Seven patients with AD and 20 healthy participants performed the Walking Corsi Test and the Corsi Block-Tapping Test. The former test requires memorizing a sequence of places by following a path and the latter is a well-known visuospatial memory task. Patients with AD also performed a verbal WM test to exclude the presence of general WM impairments. Preliminary results suggest that egocentric topographical WM is selectively impaired, with respect to visuospatial and verbal WM, even without TD suggesting an important role of this memory in the early stages of AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Corsi Block-Tapping Test; environmental human navigation; topographical disorientation; working memory.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Examiner performing the Walking Corsi Test (WalCT). The apparatus used for administering the WalCT. The scale was 10:1 of the Corsi Block-Tapping Test (CBT) and measured 2.5 × 3 m; black squares were 30 × 30 cm.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Graphs showing patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and C mean and standard deviation (SD) performance on the Corsi Block-Tapping Test (CBT; above) and the WalCT (below). * indicates significance between the group differences.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Piccardi L, Berthoz A, Baulac M, et al. . Different spatial memory systems are involved in small- and large-scale environments: evidence from patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Exp Brain Res. 2010;206 (2):171–177. - PubMed
    1. Piccardi L, Iaria G, Bianchini F, Zompanti L, Guariglia C. Dissociated deficits of visuo-spatial memory in near space and navigational space: evidence from brain-damaged patients and healthy older participants. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2011;18 (3):362–384. - PubMed
    1. Reisberg B. Clinical presentation, diagnosis, and symptomatology of age-associated cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. In: Reisberg B, editor. Alzheimer’s Disease. New York: The Free Press; 1983:173–187.
    1. Aguirre GK, D’Esposito M. Topographical disorientation: a synthesis and taxonomy. Brain. 1999;122 (pt 9):1613–1628. - PubMed
    1. McShane R, Gedling K, Keene J, Fairburn C, Jacoby R, Hope T. Getting lost in dementia: a longitudinal study of a behavioral symptom. Int Psychogeriatr. 1998;10 (3):253–260. - PubMed