Spatial Navigation Impairment in Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

Vlček, Kamil

doi:10.5772/20278

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 175 publications

(114 reference statements)

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“…Impaired spatial cognition is the hallmark of AD (Vlcek, 2011 ) and its presence in the McGill rats is well-documented in the literature (Leon et al, 2010 ). In the MWM, we observed significantly worse performance in the hidden platform task as expected, and a hint of specifically impaired long-term retention of spatial information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The McGill Transgenic Rat Model of Alzheimer's Disease Displays Cognitive and Motor Impairments, Changes in Anxiety and Social Behavior, and Altered Circadian Activity

Petrásek

Vojtěchová

Lobellová

et al. 2018

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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The McGill-R-Thy1-APP transgenic rat is an animal model of the familial form of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This model mirrors several neuropathological hallmarks of the disease, including the accumulation of beta-amyloid and the formation of amyloid plaques (in homozygous animals only), neuroinflammation and the gradual deterioration of cognitive functions even prior to plaque formation, although it lacks the tauopathy observed in human victims of AD. The goal of the present study was a thorough characterization of the homozygous model with emphasis on its face validity in several domains of behavior known to be affected in AD patients, including cognitive functions, motor coordination, emotionality, sociability, and circadian activity patterns. On the behavioral level, we found normal locomotor activity in spontaneous exploration, but problems with balance and gait coordination, increased anxiety and severely impaired spatial cognition in 4–7 month old homozygous animals. The profile of social behavior and ultrasonic communication was altered in the McGill rats, without a general social withdrawal. McGill rats also exhibited changes in circadian profile, with a shorter free-running period and increased total activity during the subjective night, without signs of sleep disturbances during the inactive phase. Expression of circadian clock gene Bmal1 was found to be increased in the parietal cortex and cerebellum, while Nr1d1 expression was not changed. The clock-controlled gene Prok2 expression was found to be elevated in the parietal cortex and hippocampus, which might have contributed to the observed changes in circadian phenotype. We conclude that the phenotype in the McGill rat model is not restricted to the cognitive domain, but also includes gait problems, changes in emotionality, social behavior, and circadian profiles. Our findings show that the model should be useful for the development of new therapeutic approaches targeting not only memory decline but also other symptoms decreasing the quality of life of AD patients.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The McGill Transgenic Rat Model of Alzheimer's Disease Displays Cognitive and Motor Impairments, Changes in Anxiety and Social Behavior, and Altered Circadian Activity

Petrásek

Vojtěchová

Lobellová

et al. 2018

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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“…According to some other reports, the spatial disorientation in AD and MCI patients seem to be associated with both medial temporal and parietal lobe function (Henderson et al, 1989; deIpolyi et al, 2007). Several reviews on this theme published recently support either the latter allocentric view (Iachini et al, 2009) or combination of both cognitive mapping and visuo-perceptual factors (Vlcek, 2011; Gazova et al, 2012) or suggest a multifocal theory of disease developing from temporal to parietal and lateral to frontal brain and midbrain and associated cognitive deficits (Lithfous et al, 2013). One other review proposes the translation between egocentric and allocentric frames, supported by retrosplenial cortex (RSC), being the basis of spatial disorientation deficits in MCI and AD (Serino and Riva, 2013).…”

Section: Current View On Spatial Deficits In Ad and MCImentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Correlates of Spatial Navigation Changes in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimerâ€™s Disease

Vlček

Laczó

2014

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Although the memory impairment is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), AD has also been characterized by spatial disorientation, which is present from its early stages. Spatial disorientation in AD manifests itself in getting lost in familiar and unfamiliar places and have been characterized more specifically using spatial navigation tests in both real space and virtual environments as an impairment in multiple spatial abilities, including allocentric and egocentric navigation strategies, visuo-spatial perception, or selection of relevant information for successful navigation. Patients suffering mild cognitive impairment (MCI), who are at a high risk of development of dementia, show impairment in a subset of these abilities, mainly connected with allocentric and egocentric processing. While spatial disorientation in typical AD patients probably reflects neurodegenerative changes in medial and posterior temporal, parietal, and frontal lobes, and retrosplenial cortex, the impairment of spatial navigation in MCI seem to be connected mainly with the medial temporal and also parietal brain changes. In this review, we will summarize the signs of brain disease in most MCI and AD patients showing in various tasks of spatial memory and navigation.

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“…Therefore, it can be considered that in this study, through shaking exercise, DG neurogenesis was not inhibited, age-related cognition defects were eliminated, and learning ability was strengthened. A decline in spatial navigation abilities is a diagnostic marker of early dementia and can be used to assess hippocampal function in dementia patients [31]. As mice move around in the Y-maze, pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus known as "place cells" fire in spatially localized areas, or "place fields."…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintaining Aging Hippocampal Function with Safe and Feasible Shaking Exercise in SAMP10 Mice

Yao

Nishii

Aizu

et al. 2020

Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord

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Introduction: The disabling effects of dementia, an incurable disease with little effect on mortality, affect society far more than many other conditions. Objective: The aim of this study was to stop or delay the onset of dementia using lowcost methods such as physical exercise. Methods: Senescence-accelerated model-prone (SAMP) 10 mice were made to perform a user-friendly shaking exercise for 25 weeks. The motor function and hippocampal functions (learning, spatial cognition) of the mice were evaluated using behavioral experiments. The degree of hippocampal aging was evaluated based on brain morphology. The association between behavioral performance of the mice and the degree of hippocampal aging was then evaluated. Results: The behavioral test results showed that the shaking group had higher motor coordination (p < 0.01) and motor learning (p < 0.05). Significantly higher performances in the learning ability were observed in the shaking group at a middle-period experiment (p < 0.05); the spatial cognitive functions also improved (p < 0.05). The shaking group showed delayed ageing of cells in the dentate gyrus (DG; area: p < 0.01) and cornu Ammonis (CA; area: p < 0.01) regions of the hippocampus. Conclusions: The shaking exercise enhances the activity of mice and reduces age-associated decreases in learning and spatial cognitive functions. Regarding hippocampal morphology, shaking exercise can prevent non-functional protein accumulation, cell atrophy, and cell loss. Specifically, shaking exercise protects cell growth and regeneration in the DG area and enhances the learning function of the hippocampus. Furthermore, shaking exercise maintained the spatial cognitive function of cells in the CA3 and CA1 regions, and prevented the chronic loss of CA2 transmission that decreased the spatial memory decline in mice.

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Spatial Navigation Impairment in Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

Cited by 10 publications

References 175 publications

The McGill Transgenic Rat Model of Alzheimer's Disease Displays Cognitive and Motor Impairments, Changes in Anxiety and Social Behavior, and Altered Circadian Activity

The McGill Transgenic Rat Model of Alzheimer's Disease Displays Cognitive and Motor Impairments, Changes in Anxiety and Social Behavior, and Altered Circadian Activity

Neural Correlates of Spatial Navigation Changes in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimerâ€™s Disease

Maintaining Aging Hippocampal Function with Safe and Feasible Shaking Exercise in SAMP10 Mice

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