People who have difficulty finding their way in new surroundings may be experiencing one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers say.

People with Alzheimer’s disease experience difficulty with navigating directions, previous research shows.  But while this is well documented in people in early stages of the disease, it has not been well studied in seemingly normal patients who may be progressing toward the disease, which is known as preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers at Washington University performed an experiment using 42 clinically normal individuals, along with 13 individuals who were classified as having preclinical Alzheimer’s and 16 individuals with documented behavioral symptoms of early stage Alzheimer’s.  People with preclinical Alzheimer’s have biological in their spinal fluid indicative of the disease, but it is not known whether they will develop the disease.

After spending two hours on a desktop computer being tested on their ability to navigate a virtual maze, they participants were given 20 minutes to either learn a specified route, or to study and explore the maze. Then they were tested on their ability to navigate the route, and those with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease scored lower than those people that were clinically normal, the researchers say.

Such a test could be used as an additional indicator to determine whether a person with preclinical Alzheimer’s will go on to develop the disease, and it could also be useful in developing strategies to help them navigate longer if they do, the researchers said of the study, which appears in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.