Attentional ERPs distinguish aging and early Alzheimer's dementia.

Attentional ERPs distinguish aging and early Alzheimer's dementia.
Neurobiol Aging. 2018 Jun 06;70:51-58
Authors: Lockwood CT, Vaughn W, Duffy CJ
Abstract
The early detection of Alzheimer's disease requires our distinguishing it from cognitive aging. Here, we test whether spatial attentional changes might support that distinction. We engaged young normal (YN), older normal (ON), and patients with early Alzheimer's dementia (EAD) in an attentionally cued, self-movement heading discrimination task while we recorded push-button response times and event related potentials. YNs and ONs show the behavioral effects of attentional shifts from the cue to the target, whereas EAD patients did not (p < 0.001). YNs and ONs also show the shifting lateralization of a newly described attentional event related potentials component, whereas EAD patients did not (p < 0.001). Our findings suggest that spatial inattention in EAD patients may contribute to heading direction processing impairments that distinguish them from ONs and undermine their navigational capacity and driving safety.
PMID: 29960173 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Neurobiology of Aging - June 6, 2018 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Lockwood CT, Vaughn W, Duffy CJ Tags: Neurobiol Aging Source Type: research