Population-level Spatial Navigation Ability to Detect and Predict Alzheimer’s Disease [conference poster abstract]

Spiers, Hugo, Manley, Ed, Silva, Ricardo, Dalton, Ruth, Wiener, Jan, Hoelscher, Christoph, Bohbot, Veronique and Hornberger, Michael (2017) Population-level Spatial Navigation Ability to Detect and Predict Alzheimer’s Disease [conference poster abstract]. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 13 (7). P1404. ISSN 1552-5260

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Abstract

Background - Spatial disorientation is one of the most common symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease. However, detection of such symptoms is difficult as there are currently no global benchmarks of what constitutes healthy navigation behaviour on a mass population level.

Methods - To address this we worked with a global telecommunications company (Deutsche Telekom) and a game development company (Glitchers) to develop the mobile video game “Sea Hero Quest”, that tests spatial orientation on a mass population. Three different spatial tasks are examined in the game: way-finding, path integration and spatial working memory. The game to date has collected data in more than 2.7 million people worldwide, across an age range of 19-95, in 193 countries.

Results - Preliminary findings for the path integration levels of the game, which are targeted more towards egocentric navigation strategies, indicate that performance i) declines over the lifetime; ii) is by 11% better in men than women across ages; iii) show regional variation with Nordic countries performing best.

Conclusions - These navigation data are unique in allowing a ‘personalised medicine’ approach towards spatial navigation symptoms, i.e. determine the diagnosis, treatment and management on an individual level based on the person’s demographic factors (age, gender, origin etc.).

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	B900 Others in Subjects allied to Medicine G900 Others in Mathematical and Computing Sciences
Department:	Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Architecture and Built Environment
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	10 Apr 2018 11:06
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 19:45
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/33942

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