Long-Term Memory and Topographical Disorientation in Healthy Elderly People: Preliminary Results of a New Diagnostic Tool

In the physiological aging, a reduction in processing speed, episodic memory and working memory has been established. However, little is known about navigational abilities in elderly people and few ecological tools are available. Recently, some evidences have suggested topographical disorientation (TD) as a possible indicator of conversion from amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment (a-MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Our purpose was to create and validate a new ecological instrument in healthy elderly subjects to be used subsequently in MCI and AD patients. Sample: we enrolled 30 healthy volunteer participants, 15 male and 15 female, mean age 68.13 (SD = 8.56). Instruments: we administered a neuropsychological assessment and experimental tasks that consist of bidimensional stimuli and a plastic city with several subtests. Results: we found significant correlations among the experimental test and spatial memory tasks and executive functions. In navigation tasks, no differences were found according to gender while age resulted to play an important role. Younger elderly subjects showed better performances in execution times, learning of different paths and creating and manipulating a mental map. Conclusion: Remembering the correct place of landmarks seems to be -a useful but not a sufficient ability in orientation into surrounding environments: binding together landmarks in a correct framework seems to be the key’s feature of orientation. These interesting results deserve to be experimented also in MCI and early AD patients.