Azheimer’s disease onset tied to lapses in attention, study suggests
Tasks requiring shifting of attention, like driving a car while conversing with a passenger, may be challenging for people in very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.People in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease have greater difficulty shifting attention back and forth between competing sources of information, a finding that offers new support for theories that contend breakdowns in attention play an important role in onset of the disease. Published in a recent issue of the journal Neuropsychology, the study suggests that subtle breakdowns in attention may offer one of the earliest reliable clues that a patient is grappling with early symptoms of Alzheimer’s-related dementia.