Egocentric spatial orientation differences between Alzheimer's disease at early stages and mild cognitive impairment: a diagnostic aid.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a growing global crisis. Egocentric spatial orientation deteriorates with age and more significantly with AD. A simple and quick virtual reality (VR) localization and target finding technique is presented as a diagnostic aid to screen mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from AD. Spatial orientation data from 93 individuals (65 AD at a mild stage, 20 MCI, and 8 other dementia types) based on VR localization of a target on a landmark-less cubic 3-story building were analyzed. We hypothesize AD and MCI groups' performances are significantly different. AD and MCI spatial performances were statistically significantly (p < 0.001) different. These results plus the longitudinal tracking of three patients who developed AD over a period of 5 years suggest the proposed spatial tests may be used as a quick and simple clinical diagnostic aid to separate AD at early to mild stages from MCI.