Virtual Reality Can Spot Navigation Problems in Early Alzheimer's Disease

New research published in Brain suggests virtual reality (VR) can identify early Alzheimer's with more accuracy than current standard cognitive tests, reports ScienceDaily . The researchers had participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) wear VR headsets, who performed worse on a virtual navigation task than healthy controls. Individuals with MCI who also had positive cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers also performed worse than those with negative CSF biomarkers. In addition, the VR navigation task differentiated low- from high-risk MCI carriers with greater accuracy than a series of currently-used tests deemed the gold standard for early Alzheimer's diagnosis. "These results suggest a VR test of navigation may be better at identifying early Alzheimer's disease than tests we use at present in clinic and in research studies," said the University of Cambridge's Dennis Chan.