Analysis of Head and Eye Coordination in Patients with Alzheimer's Desease

Mitsuho YAMADA  Mitsuru FUJII  Hitoshi HONGO  Shinji MURAKAMI  Norihito NAKANO  Kenya UOMORI  Kumiko UTSUMI  Hiroshi YOSHIMATSU  Jiro MIYAZAWA  Keiichi UENO  Ryo FUKATSU  Naohiko TAKAHATA  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information and Systems   Vol.E77-D   No.6   pp.705-719
Publication Date: 1994/06/25
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8532
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Medical Electronics and Medical Information
Keyword: 
Alzheimer's disease,  senile dementia,  eye movement,  head and eye coordination,  parietal lobe,  

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Summary: 
With the advent of an aging society, the incidence of Alzheimer-type dementia (hereinafter referred to as AD for convenience) has drastically increased. Compared with classic cerebrovascular dementia, AD requires different therapeutic modalities. Despite such differences, it is difficult to establish a differential diagnosis of AD and cerebrovascular dementia. In the present paper, we analyze the neuropsychological symptoms and signs associated with AD, such as visual cognitive dysfunction, with particular attention to head and eye coordination. The subjects were allowed to gaze at targets disposed 1 m away and at a visual angle of 25 and 50 in order to compare healthy volunteers and patients with senile dementias such as multi-infarct dementia (MID). As a consequence, patients with AD presented clinical manifestations not seen in patients with other senile dementias; that is, (1) an increase in stepwise eye movement, (2) anisotropy in the velocity of right-directional and left-directional eye movements, (3) a decrease in the velocity of head movements (4) incomplete gaze, and (5) decreased head share.