Post on 29-Oct-2020
There and Back Again
Virtual reality tests for diagnosing early Alzheimer’s disease
Dr Dennis Chan
Department of Clinical Neurosciences
Why do we need a new approach?
We need to improve:
Diagnostic utility
Ecological validity
Trial outcome measures
Scientific understanding
Why do we need a new approach?
We need to improve:
Diagnostic utility
Ecological validity
Trial outcome measures
Scientific understanding
Cheap and simple but inaccurate
PET brain scanning Lumbar puncture
Accurate but expensive and unpleasant
Why do we need a new approach?
We need to improve:
Diagnostic utility
Ecological validity
Trial outcome measures
Scientific understanding
Bedside cognitive tests
Why do we need a new approach?
We need to improve:
Diagnostic utility
Ecological validity
Trial outcome measures
Scientific understanding
How we test new drugs
In animal models
In humans
Why do we need a new approach?
We need to improve:
Diagnostic utility
Ecological validity
Trial outcome measures
Scientific understanding
A new approach
The progression of AD changes across the brain
Hippocampal place cells
Work by John O’Keefe (UCL) in 1971; Nobel Prize in Medicine 2014
Which
picture
shows the
same place?
The 4
Mountains Test
Spatial memory testing correlates with dementia risk
score in PREVENT
The entorhinal cortex:
Ground Zero in AD
place cell
head direction cell
grid cell
border cell
Hippocampus
Entorhinal
cortex
VR navigation task
Howett et al. (2018) submitted
Howett et al. (2018) submitted
Distance error scatterplot: controls
Distance error scatterplot: MCI -ve
Distance error scatterplot: MCI +ve
VR navigation testing provides
Diagnostic utility 👍
Ecological validity 👍
Trial outcome measures 👍
Scientific understanding 👍
Next steps
VR in PREVENT
Navigation testing
from virtual reality to ….reality
Acknowledgments
David Howett
Zoe Adler
John O’Brien
Julija Krupic
Tereza Vargova
Ruth Wood
Neil Burgess
John King
Andrea Castegnaro
John O’Keefe