Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is from its start associated with a loss of episodic memory and spatial navigation. In most cases it's prec eded with the mild cognitive impairment, early diagnosis of which is an important objective for current medicine.
To investigate more the specific impairment in the spatial cognitive domain, we developed two new screening tests for the use in a real space navigation setting called Blue V elvet Arena in the Hospital Motol, Prague. The simple navigation task evaluates three modes of spatial navigation: cued, using proximal orientatio n cue, allocent- ric, using distal orientation cue, and egocentric, using current subject position.
The task of blind navigation assesses naviga tion without vision to two previously seen targets on the arena floor. We report preliminary results concerning the impairment of both mild cogniti ve impairment and Alzheimer's disease subjects.