Examination reveals spatial abilities decline with Alzheimer's disease in adults with Down syndrome, indicating key cognitive markers.
Key Points
This research investigates the effects of aging on spatial abilities in individuals with Down syndrome and their relationship with Alzheimer's disease.
Participants included 376 individuals with Down syndrome from the Alzheimer's Biomarkers Consortium–Down Syndrome project.
Participants completed a series of cognitive measures assessing spatial abilities.
Age effects were analyzed in both visuospatial construction and visuomotor integration.
Visuomotor integration declined with age, while visuospatial construction showed no significant age effects.
Both abilities exhibited poor discrimination between cognitively stable and mild cognitive impairment, but better differentiation between cognitively stable and Alzheimer's disease.
Block Design exhibited the highest predictive power for distinguishing cognitive stability from Alzheimer's disease.