Alzheimer’s is one of
the most prevalent diseases among the older population in the United States and
worldwide, and also one of the saddest. According to the Alzheimer’s association,
over 5.7 million people are living with Alzheimer’s, with this number projected
to be 14 million by 2050. I myself have had experience with Alzheimer’s disease
– my grandfather, who recently passed away, was diagnosed with both Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s. Seeing him go from an inspiring and intelligent man to being a
shell of his formal self within the last two years was one of the hardest
things for me to witness. Because of these circumstances, I was very interested
in Dr. Roberto Fernandez’s study on Alzheimer’s and how it relates to visual
motion.
Dr. Fernandez started
off his lecture discussing Alzheimer’s overall, and why it is so important to
study. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia after the age of 65. It
impairs recent episodic memory, and this serves as the earliest symptom. It
currently has no cure, preventative measures, and also has no way to be
effectively treated. There are genetic risk factors, and seen pattern of
progressions for the disease itself.
With all of that being
said, Dr. Fernandez went into detail about the things unknown about Alzheimer’s
disease (AD). For starters, he talked briefly about changes in amyloid/tau
markers that are prevalent with the disease; furthermore, selective
vulnerability, or why some groups are predisposed to greater rates of getting
the disease.
Going off of this, Dr.
Fernandez went into exactly what his research project focused on. He briefly
discussed the posterior cortical distribution of AD pathology. There is
selective vulnerability of specific neuronal populations and the spread of
pathological functional networks associated with the disease. This is why Dr.
Fernandez chose to study the parietal lobe function – it’s perceptual base of
navigation are ideal model to study aging and AD. AD is heavily associated with
posterior cortical atrophy, and Dr. Fernandez’s research focused greatly on the
effects in AD patients.
Dr. Fernandez’s
research focused on optic flow – the visual motion that is present during
self-movement. More specifically, his research looked at direction and focus of
expansion in driving. His lab set up a visual reality driving test that tested
several different aspects in younger test subjects without Alzheimer’s, older
test subjects without Alzheimer’s, as well as older subjects who suffered from
AD. The research focuses on visual motion testing involving event related
potentials (ERPs), that have horizontally moving dot patterns/gratings that
evoke a negative wave peaking at around 200 ms after onset (N200 response). The
research design focused on creating a driving simulation that subjects
participated in, that involved testing the presence of N200 response.
The research overall
provided data that Dr. Fernandez hypothesized. Greater motion coherence and
faster optic flow produced greater N200 peaks, especially in younger subjects
who did not suffer from the disease. Furthermore, it was also confirmed that AD
is associated with overall smaller optic flow N200 peaks. Aging has little
effect on N200 peaks, as shown between regular subjects both old and young, but
AD had a significant effect on diminishing N200 peaks.
Breaking this
information down, the big picture is that Alzheimer’s disease is very
detrimental to people diagnosed with the disease – they cannot live on their own,
and must rely on family/nursing home’s to be able to survive. One of the take
home messages of Dr. Fernandez’s research is the strong effect that AD has on a
patient’s ability to function in motion related tasks, especially with the
driving simulations. His research found that AD has significant implications
for real world navigation, including an increased risk for motor vehicle
accidents.AD has significant implications for real world navigation, including
an increased risk for motor vehicle accidents.
Indeed, this data is
very pressing and important in relation to the stigmatization around drivers
with dementia, and those who are starting to suffer from dementia. In an
article published by the Alzheimer’s association discussing Alzheimer’s and
when a person should stop driving states that driving deaths for rivers aged
75-84 is 3 per 1 million miles driven – very similar to teen driving deaths.
For over the age of 85, this rate quadruples – with over 2 million drivers in
this category, and the chance of dementia increasing with increasing age, it is
very important to educate people on the dangers of driving with Alzheimer’s/dementia,
and when to stop driving. I believe that
if Dr. Fernandez’s research were put on the Alzheimer’s association website and
was further advocated, it would help decrease the number of crashes related to
older drivers, especially those with dementia.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed
Dr. Fernandez’s presentation. I think that the work is very important,
especially since it relates to real world issues such as motor fatality related
to old age. While there may be no cure yet, the steps taken towards Alzheimer’s
research serve as important steps to a safer future.
Bibliography
Cramer, Luciana. “When
Is It Time to Stop Driving?” Caregiver Tips and Tools, no. 26,
www.alz.org/documents/centralcoast/Safety_26_When_to_stop_driving.pdf.
“Latest Alzheimer's
Facts and Figures.” Latest Facts & Figures Report | Alzheimer's
Association, 19 Mar. 2018, www.alz.org/facts/.
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