You have difficulty orienting yourself ? This first sign of Alzheimer's disease to watch out for

Des difficultés à s’orienter : premier signe de la maladie d’Alzheimer ?

According to British researchers, people at risk of Alzheimer's disease have difficulty orienting themselves in space, long before their cognitive functions are altered.

Memory loss, difficulty performing familiar tasks, language problems, disorientation… These manifestations are often considered to be the first signs of Alzheimer's disease.

But researchers from University College London (UCL) are proposing a new approach. In a study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, they used virtual reality to test the spatial navigation of 100 adults who were asymptomatic but at risk of Alzheimer's disease (hereditary risk, physiological risk due to the presence of a gene -the allele APOE-ε4- or lifestyle risk, such as low level of physical activity).

More among men

They thus observed that people with the greatest risk of developing the disease presented deficiencies during the virtual reality navigation task. For Dr Coco Newton, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL), "these results indicate that this type of behavioral changes could represent the very first signal diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, when people go from being unaffected to having the disease". The researchers also found that there was a strong difference between the sexes. This association being observed in men and not in women.

"These results could thus improve the early detection of Alzheimer's disease", s&rsquo ;enthusiasm the authors. "This is particularly important with the emergence of anti-amyloid treatments, considered to be the most effective from the early stages of the disease.& quot;