Iachini Ina, Iavarone Alessandro, Senese Vincenzo Paolo, Ruotolo Francesco, Ruggiero Gennaro
Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Italy.
Curr Aging Sci. 2009 Mar;2(1):43-59. doi: 10.2174/1874609810902010043.
In the literature it is commonly reported that several spatial abilities decline with normal aging, even though such a decline is not uniform. So far, it is not yet clear which spatial components present a normal age-related decline, which ones are preserved and at what point the deficit is so severe to represent an index of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or a symptom of potential degenerative progression as in the early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). In particular, AD (from early onset) is characterised by impairments in constructive abilities, visuospatial intelligence, spatial short-term memory deficits, and disorders of spatial orientation (topographical disorientation). MCI indicates a condition, generally affecting older individuals, characterized by cognitive deficits including memory and/or non memory impairments and at high risk of progression to dementia. Three MCI subgroups have been distinguished and a very high risk of developing AD is associated to the amnestic MCI subtypes. Further, recent studies have suggested that the allocentric component of spatial memory might be taken as predictor of AD from MCI. Given the frequency of visuospatial deficits in early-stage AD, evaluation of visuospatial processes is a promising approach to find predictive markers of AD. Here we report a review of the literature exploring specific visuospatial components in normal aging, MCI, and AD. In this way we could shed some light on the role of these components in the progression from MCI to AD and pave the way for future studies.
文献中普遍报道，尽管这种衰退并不一致，但随着正常衰老，几种空间能力会下降。到目前为止，尚不清楚哪些空间成分会出现与年龄相关的正常衰退，哪些会得以保留，以及在何种程度上这种缺陷会严重到代表轻度认知障碍（MCI）的指标或潜在退行性进展的症状，如早期阿尔茨海默病（AD）。特别是，AD（从早期发病开始）的特征是建构能力受损、视觉空间智力受损、空间短期记忆缺陷以及空间定向障碍（地形定向障碍）。MCI是一种通常影响老年人的状况，其特征是认知缺陷，包括记忆和/或非记忆障碍，且发展为痴呆的风险很高。已区分出三个MCI亚组，失忆型MCI亚型发展为AD的风险非常高。此外，最近的研究表明，空间记忆的以自我为中心的成分可能被视为从MCI发展为AD的预测指标。鉴于早期AD中视觉空间缺陷的发生率，对视觉空间过程的评估是寻找AD预测标志物的一种有前景的方法。在此，我们报告一篇文献综述，探讨正常衰老、MCI和AD中的特定视觉空间成分。通过这种方式，我们可以阐明这些成分在从MCI发展为AD过程中的作用，并为未来的研究铺平道路。
