Alzheimer's patients do not show left unilateral spatial neglect but exhibit peripheral inattention and simplification

Abstract

The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (RCFT) is widely used to measure visuoperceptual and visuoconstructional skills, while the Line Bisection (LB) test is commonly employed to assess unilateral spatial neglect (USN). Previous studies have suggested that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients may suffer from left USN.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to clarify whether left USN occurs in AD.MethodsForty controls, 40 very mild AD patients and 31 mild/moderate AD patients performed both the RCFT copying and the LB test.ResultsThe very mild AD and mild/moderate AD groups had lower total RCFT copying scores and also scored lower in the “left” and “detail” categories compared to controls. However, there were no correlations between the left-category score for RCFT and the LB score. Instead, peripheral inattention and simplification patterns were noted.ConclusionsWe found that the RCFT copying test is effective for detecting early AD and suggest that AD patients manifest peripheral inattention and simplification but not left USN.

Normative data on Benton Visual Form Discrimination Test for older adults and impaired scores in Clinical Dementia Rating 0.5 participants: Community‐based study. The Osaki–Tajiri Project

“…In the present study the CDR 0.5 group was significantly lower on total VFD score and correct response than the healthy group, and higher in number of peripheral errors. The present findings supported both the Kaskie and Storandt report and our previous report in that CDR 0.5 participants exhibit deficits of visual search and visual discrimination abilities, and show peripheral inattention 12,27 …”

“…To observe the relationships between the VFD and other tests (Digit Forward, Digit Backward and RCFT copying), the participants were operationally classified into three groups based on VFD total score, and those with good (total score; 29-32), moderate (25)(26)(27)(28), and poor (Յ24) performances. Two-way (healthy vs CDR 0.5, and three VFD performancebased groups) MANOVAs with covariance effects of age and education level were performed.…”

“…12 The present results support the findings of both the Kaskie and Storandt study and our previous report, in that CDR 0.5 participants exhibit deficits of visual attention (particularly, searching and peripheral attention) and construction abilities. 12,27 We need to realize again that the VFD is one of the good tests to reflect visual attention and construction. It is worthwhile to further investigate older adult, CDR 0.5 and dementia patients with visual inattention and visuospatial disorders.…”

Screening for Very Mild Subcortical Vascular Dementia Patients Aged 75 and Above Using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and Mini-Mental State Examination in a Community: The Kurihara Project

“…People with MCI or CDR 0.5 show some neuropsychological deficiencies, such as loss of memory, attention, and visuospatial and executive functions [5,6,7,8,9]. This state should be detected for a possible prediction of dementia.…”

Trends of the journal: letters, reviews, abstracts, and manuscripts from abroad

“…The first papers from abroad published in our journal were submitted by Professor Helmut Heinsen from Wuerzburg, Germany, who was working with Lea Grinberg, a Brazilian neuropathologist, 1 and by the group lead by Professor Kenichi Meguro, from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. 2 In this issue we publish an article by Professor John Hodges’ group, 3 formerly at Cambridge but now in Sydney, Australia. In his letter, Prof. Hodges, who is one of the most renowned researchers in the field of frontotemporal lobar degenerations, stated that the main reason for submitting the manuscript to Dementia & Neuropsychologia was to better disseminate the Cambridge Behavioural Inventory Revised to the Latin-American community.…”