New tool for early signs of dementia

Cognitive decline can affect more than memory. It can also make it harder to navigate familiar places and find your way—including finding your way home from the supermarket.

Researchers at Flinders University and elsewhere are using spatial navigation as a new way to detect early changes in cognitive health.

Published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, the new Spatial Navigation and Memory (SPAM) Questionnaire aims to serve as a tool for more accessible, time-efficient clinical testing that is sensitive to cognitive aging.

In a study involving 940 older adults, Flinders cognitive neuroscientists Dr. Monique Boord and Dr. Stephanie Wong led the assessment of the self-report SPAM questionnaire, finding that it captures individuals’ perceived spatial navigation and memory function both across their lifetime and within the past three months.

“We found that the SPAM captured two distinct but related aspects of cognitive function, spatial navigation and memory responses, in healthy older adults. These findings provide support for the SPAM as a measure of these domains and its use in cognitive aging,” said Boord, a research fellow in mental health at Flinders University.

“Difficulty navigating unfamiliar environments and subtle disorientation are common in Alzheimer’s disease and often precede noticeable memory loss and later significant navigational deficits.”

Senior co-author Wong added, “People in the early stages of dementia often face a hidden challenge. They begin to struggle with directions and get lost, even in familiar places.

“While patients notice these changes, clinicians haven’t had a step-by-step checklist to ask about them.

“Relying on personal memory is too subjective. By introducing a structured way to track these spatial navigational difficulties, our research team can help clinicians remove the guesswork, spot cognitive decline much sooner and help families plan for their loved ones’ safety.”

While research suggests that changes in spatial navigation may emerge in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, spatial navigation is not routinely assessed in clinical settings.

The authors say the new research validates the SPAM questionnaire and may offer a practical, time-efficient tool for clinicians to assess spatial navigation and memory abilities once it is also validated in people with a diagnosis of dementia.

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Sadie Harley

BSc Life Sciences & Ecology. Microbiology lab background with pharmaceutical news experience in oil, gas, and renewable industries.

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Andrew Zinin

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