Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

Object perception impairments predict instrumental activities of daily living dependence in Alzheimer's disease.

Jefferson AL, Barakat LP, Giovannetti T, Paul RH, Glosser G

Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadellphia, PA, USA. angelaj@bu.edu

This study examined the contribution of object perception and spatial localization to functional dependence among Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Forty patients with probable AD completed measures assessing verbal recognition memory, working memory, object perception, spatial localization, semantic knowledge, and global cognition. Primary caregivers completed a measure of activities of daily living (ADLs) that included instrumental and basic self-care subscales (i.e., IADLs and BADLs, respectively). Stepwise multiple regressions revealed that global cognition accounted for significant portions of variance among the ADL total, IADL, and BADL scores. However, when global cognition was removed from the model, object perception was the only significant cognitive predictor of the ADL total and IADL subscale scores, accounting for 18.5% and 19.3% of the variance, respectively. When considering multiple cognitive components simultaneously, object perception and the integrity of the inferotemporal cortex is important in the completion of functional abilities in general and IADLs in particular among AD patients.

Published 6 July 2006 in J Clin Exp Neuropsychol, 28(6): 884-97.
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