Although normal aging has been related to several cognitive difficulties, other processes have been studied less, such as spatial memory. Our aim was to compare egocentric and allocentric memory in an elderly population using ecological tasks. Twentyeight cognitively unimpaired participants performed Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory Tasks, as well as Spatial Span from CANTAB, Benton's Judge of Line Orientation test (JoLO), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment test (MoCA). The results revealed that younger participants showed better performance than older participants on both the Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory Tasks, although only the Egocentric test was able to discriminate between younger, middle, and older elderly participants. Learning effect was found in Allocentric Spatial Memory Task in younger and older groups, but not in the middle group. Allocentric and egocentric performance was not related to other visuospatial neuropsychological scores and gender did not influence performance in any task. Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory Tasks may be useful tools in early screening for cognitive decline, as they are able to detect age differences in the cognitive unimpaired elderly population.

Background: Visuospatial skills are impaired in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Other related skills exist, such as spatial orientation have been poorly studied. The egocentric (based on internal cues) and allocentric frameworks (based on external cues) are used in daily spatial orientation. Depending on PD onset, the allocentric framework may have a higher level of impairment in tremor-dominant and the egocentric one in akinetic-rigid. Objective: To evaluate spatial orientation and visuospatial functions in PD patients and controls, and to assess whether their performance is related to disease duration and the PD subtype (tremor-dominant and akinetic-rigid). Methods: We evaluated egocentric and allocentric spatial orientation (Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory Tasks) and visuospatial abilities, span and working memory in 59 PD patients and 51 healthy controls. Results: Visuospatial skills, visuospatial span, and egocentric and allocentric orientation are affected in PD. Visuospatial skills and allocentric orientation undergo deterioration during the first 5 years of the disease progression, while egocentric orientation and visuospatial span do so at later stages (9–11 years). The akinetic-rigid subtype presents worse results in all the spatial abilities that were measured when compared to controls, and worse scores in visuospatial working memory, visuospatial abilities and allocentric orientation when compared to the tremor-dominant group. The tremor-dominant group performed worse than controls in egocentric and allocentric orientation. Conclusion: PD patients show deficits in their visuospatial abilities and in their egocentric and allocentric spatial orientation compared to controls, specifically in akinetic-rigid PD. Only spatial orientation are affected in tremor-dominant PD patients. Allocentric orientation is affected earlier in the progression of the disease.

This study aimed to assess activities of daily living (ADLs) through questionnaires and performance-based tasks in Parkinson disease (PD) and to relate their execution with memory and visuospatial abilities. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 85 participants (55 PD and 30 controls). Results: Parkinson disease achieved a significant lower performance in Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) tasks. Those with PD spent less time in ADLS. In PD with lower cognitive level, visuospatial functions were significantly related with performance-based ADLs. Conclusion: Our results underline the clinical value of using performance-based task for the assessment of cognitive deficits associated with neurological disease in the elderly.