VISUOSPATIAL DEFICIT IN DEMENTIA OF THE ALZHEIMER-TYPE

Objective: To examine visuospatial impairment in a task that minimizes episodic memory demands in individuals with very mild or mild dementi a of the Alzheimer type compared with a healthy control group. Design: Initial scores on the Visual Form Discrimination Test enrolled in lon gitudinal studies of dementia of the Alzheimer type and healthy aging. Setting: Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University , St Louis, Mo. Participants: Volunteer samples of 59 people (35 women and 24 men) with mild dementia of the Alzheimer type, 66 (39 women an d 27 men) with mild dementia of the Alzheimer type, and 146 healthy no ndemented individuals (90 women and 56 men) were recruited between 198 8 and 1992. Ages ranged from 51 to 96 years. Persons with confounding medical, neurologic, or psychiatric disorders were excluded. Dementia severity was staged by means of the Clinical Dementia Rating. Main Out come Measures: Total number correct on the Visual Form Discrimination Test as well as the numbers of three types of errors: peripheral figur e movement or rotation, major figure distortion, and major figure rota tion. Results: Visuospatial deficit was apparent in very mild dementia of the Alzheimer type. Individuals with both very mild and mild demen tia of the Alzheimer type made more errors involving peripheral figure s and rotation of a major figure than did healthy, nondemented individ uals. Conclusion: The initial effects of Alzheimer's disease on cognit ive function are more pervasive than just episodic memory failure.