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From the College of Medicine, Department of Neurology (Drs. Rizzo and Anderson), College of Engineering (Dr. Rizzo), and College of Public Health (Dr. Dawson), The University of Iowa, Iowa City; and the Department of Psychology (Drs. Myers and Ball), University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Matthew Rizzo, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA 52242; e-mail: matthew-rizzo{at}uiowa.edu
BACKGROUND: Impaired attention can hinder information processing at multiple levels and may explain aspects of functional decline in aging and dementia. Impairments of attention in early AD may contribute to performance reductions in other cognitive domains, including memory and executive functions.
METHOD: The authors analyzed the scores on a battery of tests of attention and cognitive abilities in 64 older individuals: 42 with mild AD and 22 control subjects without dementia. The authors tested the hypotheses that patients with AD would have impairments of visual attention, and that these impairments would correlate with dysfunction in other key cognitive domains.
RESULTS: Patients with AD performed significantly worse than control subjects on measures of sustained attention, divided attention, selective attention, and visual processing speed. The differences were not due to differences in age, education, or basic visual function. Strong relationships were identified between reduced attention skills and overall cognitive impairment.
CONCLUSIONS: Deterioration of attention abilities occurs in early stages of AD, and likely contributes to functional decline in these patients. More routine assessment of visual attention deficits could give a more accurate measure of functionally useful perception in patients with AD who show normal visual acuity and visual fields, perhaps providing useful clues to diagnosis and staging.
Key words: AD—Visual attention—Speed of processing—Visual cortex.
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