Spatial orientation is emerging as an early and reliable cognitive biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology. However, no evidence exists as to whether spatial orientation is also affected in vascular dementia (VaD).Objective: To examine allocentric (map-based) and egocentric (viewpoint-based) spatial orientation in an early stage VaD case.Methods: A spatial test battery was administered following clinical and neuropsychological cognitive evaluation.Results: Despite the patient’s complaints, little evidence of episodic memory deficits were detected when cueing was provided to overcome executive dysfunction. Similarly, medial temporal lobe-mediated allocentric orientation was intact. By contrast, medial parietal-mediated egocentric orientation was impaired, despite normal performance on standard visuospatial tasks.Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first in-depth investigation of spatial orientation deficits in VaD. Isolated egocentric deficits were observed. This differs from AD orientation deficits which encompass both allocentric and egocentric orientation deficits. A combination of egocentric orientation and executive function tests could serve as a promising cognitive marker for VaD pathophysiology.

Path integration spatial navigation processes are emerging as promising cognitive markers for prodromal and clinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, such path integration changes have been little explored in Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI), despite neurovascular change being a major contributing factor to dementia and potentially AD. In particular, the sensitivity and specificity of path integration impairments in VCI compared to AD is unclear. In the current pilot study, we explore path integration performance in AD and VCI patient groups and hypothesise that i) medial parietal mediated egocentric processes will be more affected in VCI and ii) medial temporal mediated allocentric processes will be more affected in AD. This retrospective cross-sectional study included early stage VCI patients (n=9), AD patients (n=10) and healthy age-matched controls (n=20). All participants underwent extensive neuropsychological testing, as well as spatial navigation testing. The spatial navigation tests included the virtual reality ‘Supermarket’ task assessing egocentric (body-based) and allocentric (map-based) navigation as well as the ‘Clock Orientation’ test assessing egocentric and path integration processes. Results showed that egocentric path integration processes are only impaired in VCI, potentially distinguishing it from AD. However, in contrast to our prediction, allocentric path integration was similarly impaired for VCI and AD. These preliminary findings suggest limited specificity of allocentric path integration deficits between VCI and AD. By contrast, egocentric path integration deficits emerge as more specific to VCI, potentially allowing for more specific diagnostic and treatment outcome measures for vascular impairment in dementia.

Path integration spatial navigation processes are emerging as promising cognitive markers for prodromal and clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, such path integration changes have been less explored in Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI), despite neurovascular change being a major contributing factor to dementia and potentially AD. In particular, the sensitivity and specificity of path integration impairments in VCI compared to AD is unclear. In the current pilot study, we explore path integration performance in early-stage AD and VCI patient groups and hypothesize that: (i) medial parietal mediated egocentric processes will be more affected in VCI; and (ii) medial temporal mediated allocentric processes will be more affected in AD. This cross-sectional study included early-stage VCI patients (n = 9), AD patients (n = 10) and healthy age-matched controls (n = 20). All participants underwent extensive neuropsychological testing, as well as spatial navigation testing. The spatial navigation tests included the virtual reality "Supermarket" task assessing egocentric (body-based) and allocentric (map-based) navigation as well as the "Clock Orientation" test assessing egocentric and path integration processes. Results showed that egocentric integration processes are only impaired in VCI, potentially distinguishing it from AD. However, in contrast to our prediction, allocentric integration was not more impaired in AD compared to VCI. These preliminary findings suggest limited specificity of allocentric integration deficits between VCI and AD. By contrast, egocentric path integration deficits emerge as more specific to VCI, potentially allowing for more specific diagnostic and treatment outcome measures for vascular impairment in dementia.

Objectives To compare the cognitive ability of people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with healthy controls (HCs). Methods People with RA were recruited from the Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR), a population-based cohort study of people with inflammatory arthritis. Data on aged-matched HCs (people with no cognitive impairment) came from the comparison arm of The Dementia Research and Care Clinic Study (TRACC). People with RA and HCs performed a range of cognitive ability tasks assessing: attention, memory, verbal fluency, language, visuospatial skills, emotional recognition, executive function and theory of mind. A score of < 88 on the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-III (ACE-III) was considered cognitive impairment. Scores were compared using linear regression adjusting for age, gender, smoking status, education, body mass index, anxiety and depression. Results Thirty-eight people with RA (mean [standard deviation (SD)] age: 69.1 [8.0]; 25 [65.8%] women) were matched with 28 HCs (mean [SD] age: 68.2 [6.4]; 15 [53.6%] women). Twenty-three (60.5%) people with RA were considered to have mild cognitive impairment (mean [SD] ACE-III: RA = 85.2 [7.4], HC = 96.0 [2.5]). People with RA had impairments in memory, verbal fluency, visuospatial functioning, executive function, and emotional recognition in faces compared with HCs, after adjustment for confounders. Conclusions People with RA had cognitive impairments in a range of domains. People with RA may benefit from cognitive impairment screening to allow for early administration of appropriate interventions.

Environmental stimuli, when paired with reward, can influence behaviour in maladaptive ways, for example, by encouraging overeating or addiction. Such behaviour can be sensitive to reward value manipulations, under circumscribed conditions, but whether reward-seeking is also sensitive to stimulus value manipulations remains unclear. Thus, the current experiment investigated whether reducing the hedonic value of a reward-paired stimulus would reduce reward-seeking behaviour. In total, 36 participants successfully completed a single-response Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) task with a counter-conditioning procedure. The Pavlovian phase associated three conditioned stimuli (CSs) with money at 100%, 50%, or 0% contingency. Counter-conditioning then followed for the experimental group, who saw the 100% CS paired with unpleasant pictures, while the control group saw only neutral images. Instrumental training required participants to learn a button-pressing response to win money. The transfer phase contrasted instrumental responding during baseline and CS presentation. Both experimental and control groups liked the 100% CS more than the other CSs after Pavlovian training, but counter-conditioning reduced this 100% CS liking. In transfer, the experimental group showed an abolition of appetitive PIT, while the control group showed maintenance of appetitive PIT. However, this group difference was only evident in response vigour, not response initiation. In summary, CS hedonic value influences cue-potentiated instrumental responding. More specifically, hedonic value of a reward-paired cue influences the vigour of instrumental responses, but not the decision to initiate a response. These data may have relevance to smoking cessation policies, where the introduction of health warnings may be viewed as a real-world example of counter conditioning.

Background Path integration spatial navigation processes are emerging as promising cognitive biomarkers for prodromal and clinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, such path integration changes have been little explored in Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI),despite neurovascular change being a major contributing factor to dementia and potentially AD. In particular, the sensitivity and specificity of path integration impairments in VCI compared to AD is unclear. In the current pilot study, we explore path integration performance in AD and VCI patient groups and hypothesise that i) medial parietal mediated egocentric processes will be more affected in VCI and ii) medial temporal mediated allocentric processes will be more affected in AD. Method The cross‐sectional study included early stage VCI patients (n=9), AD patients (n=10) and healthy age‐matched controls (n=20). All participants underwent extensive neuropsychological testing, as well as spatial navigation testing. The spatial navigation tests included the virtual reality ‘Supermarket’ task assessing egocentric (body‐based) and allocentric (map‐based) navigation as well as the ‘Clock Orientation’ test assessing egocentric and path integration processes. Result Findings showed that egocentric path integration processes are only impaired in VCI, potentially distinguishing it from AD. Whereas, allocentric path integration was similarly impaired for VCI and AD. Egocentric scores of Supermarket and Clock Orientation predictors explained 77% (Nagelkerke R 2 ) of variance in VCI and AD patients and correctly classified 84% of patients (7 out of 9 VCI; 9 out of 10 AD) into their respective cohorts. ROC curves were computed and similarly, Area Under the Curve (AUC) values indicated that egocentric orientation in the Supermarket (AUC = .8, SE = .12; 95% CI [.56, 1]) and Clock test (AUC= .91, SE = .06, 95% CI [.8, 1]) had strong diagnostic accuracy in distinguishing VCI from AD patients. Conclusion These preliminary findings suggest egocentric path integration deficits emerge as more specific to VCI, potentially allowing for more specific diagnostic and treatment outcome measures for vascular impairment in dementia. By contrast, there was limited specificity of allocentric path integration deficits between VCI and AD.

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failed to discriminate the 'when' component, whatever the ITI used. Our findings suggest that the 'what' and 'where' components of episodic-like memory trace display a similar time course, whatever the paradigm of measurement used. The 'when'component seems however to be more sensitive to the model of measurement. Institute of Physiology AS CR, v.v.i. Prague, Czech RepublicPlace avoidance (PA) on a Carousel requires rats to avoid a hidden, stationary room-defined place on a continuously rotating circular arena. Rats have to selectively attend to the relevant cues and disregard the irrelevant cues. This coordination of discordant information critically depends on the hippocampus, but it is distinct from its role in spatial memory.Objective: We compared the effect of dentate gyrus (DG) lesions on the Carousel and in the water maze to test DG role in cognitive coordination.