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The Contribution of Allocentric Impairments to the Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease

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Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health (MindCare 2018)

Abstract

An early decline in navigation abilities is one of the first sign of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). More specifically, it has been suggested that allocentric impairments contribute significantly to this pathological decline. In this vein, the objective of the current work was to investigate the contribution of different spatial abilities involved in navigation (including allocentric ones) to the cognitive decline. Thirty elderly participated in the study, divided into two groups: Fifteen cognitively healthy aged individuals and fifteen individuals with AD. Our results showed that patients with AD performed significantly poorer in almost all tests evaluating spatial abilities in comparison to cognitively healthy aged individuals. Interestingly, we found that the allocentric abilities were the only significant predictor of the cognitive decline. Overall, these results suggested the primary role of allocentric impairments in contributing to the cognitive pathological decline.

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Acknowledgement

This work was partially supported by the Italian funded project “High-end and Low-End Virtual Reality Systems for the Rehabilitation of Frailty in the Elderly” (PE-2013-02355948), by the research project Tecnologia Positiva e Healthy Aging (Positive Technology and Healthy Aging) (Grant D.3.2., 2014) and by the research project “Ageing and Healthy Living: A Human Centered Approach in Research and innovation as Source of Quality Life”, funded by Fondazione Cariplo within the 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Via Magnasco, 2, 20149, Milan, Italy

    Silvia Serino & Giuseppe Riva

  2. Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli, 1, 20100, Milan, Italy

    Silvia Serino & Giuseppe Riva

  3. Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Piazzale S. Agostino 2, 24129, Bergamo, BG, Italy

    Francesca Morganti

  4. Department of Basic Psychology, Clinic and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I, Av. Sos Baynat, s/n, 12071, Castellón, Spain

    Desirèe Colombo

Authors
  1. Silvia Serino
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  2. Francesca Morganti
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  3. Desirèe Colombo
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  4. Giuseppe Riva
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvia Serino .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy

    Pietro Cipresso

  2. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

    Silvia Serino

  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Yuri Ostrovsky

  4. McLean Institute for Technology in Psychiatry and Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA

    Justin T. Baker

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© 2018 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Serino, S., Morganti, F., Colombo, D., Riva, G. (2018). The Contribution of Allocentric Impairments to the Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease. In: Cipresso, P., Serino, S., Ostrovsky, Y., Baker, J. (eds) Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health. MindCare 2018. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 253. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01093-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01093-5_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01092-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01093-5

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