Patients with Parkinson’s Disease Show Alteration in their Visuospatial Abilities and in their Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Orientation Measured by Card Placing Tests
Affiliations: [a] Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain
| [b] Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias (INEUROPA), Oviedo, Spain
| [c] Servicio de Rehabilitación, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias (HUCA), Oviedo, Spain
| [d] Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain
| [e] Fundación para la Investigación y la Innovación Biosanitaria del Principado de Asturias (FINBA), Oviedo, Spain
| [f] Department of Morphology and Cell Biology, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Marta Mendez, Ph.D., Departamento de Psicología, Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias (INEUROPA), Universidad de Oviedo, Facultad de Psicología, Plaza Feijoo s/n, 33003 Oviedo, Spain. Tel.: +34 985 104183; E-mail: mendezlmarta@uniovi.es.
Abstract: Background:Visuospatial skills are impaired in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Other related skills exist, such as spatial orientation have been poorly studied. The egocentric (based on internal cues) and allocentric frameworks (based on external cues) are used in daily spatial orientation. Depending on PD onset, the allocentric framework may have a higher level of impairment in tremor-dominant and the egocentric one in akinetic-rigid. Objective:To evaluate spatial orientation and visuospatial functions in PD patients and controls, and to assess whether their performance is related to disease duration and the PD subtype (tremor-dominant and akinetic-rigid). Methods:We evaluated egocentric and allocentric spatial orientation (Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory Tasks) and visuospatial abilities, span and working memory in 59 PD patients and 51 healthy controls. Results:Visuospatial skills, visuospatial span, and egocentric and allocentric orientation are affected in PD. Visuospatial skills and allocentric orientation undergo deterioration during the first 5 years of the disease progression, while egocentric orientation and visuospatial span do so at later stages (9–11 years). The akinetic-rigid subtype presents worse results in all the spatial abilities that were measured when compared to controls, and worse scores in visuospatial working memory, visuospatial abilities and allocentric orientation when compared to the tremor-dominant group. The tremor-dominant group performed worse than controls in egocentric and allocentric orientation. Conclusion:PD patients show deficits in their visuospatial abilities and in their egocentric and allocentric spatial orientation compared to controls, specifically in akinetic-rigid PD. Only spatial orientation are affected in tremor-dominant PD patients. Allocentric orientation is affected earlier in the progression of the disease.
