VISUAL DYSFUNCTION PREDICTS COGNITIVE DEFICITS IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

Deficits in basic visual capacities are prevalent in Alzheimer's disea se (AD), raising the question of their impact on cognitive function. W e examined the relation between vision and cognition in 72 patients wi th AD. Vision tests assessed color discrimination, stereoacuity, contr ast sensitivity, and backward pattern masking. For cognitive tests of object recognition, at least 25% (up to 50%) of score variance was pre dicted by performance on a vision test. For tests of spatial localizat ion, only 2 to 11% of the variance was predicted by performance on a v ision test. The results indicated that: (1) visual dysfunction was a s ignificant predictor of cognitive dysfunction in AD, and (2) visual de ficits in AD may have a strong functional impact on performance in spe cific cognitive domains.