Abstract
In rats, caudate lesions have been shown to impair performance on egocentric spatial memory tasks (Potegal, 1972; Cook and Kessner, 1988). Montegomery (1993) has demonstrated that Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients with a moderate condition showed deficits in a spatial memory task when moved in a wheelchair. In our study, 18 patients (Hoehn-Yahr 3) and 18 controls were tested on an active (walking and pointing) spatial memory task. Eight matched pairs were tested in Glasgow, Scotland and 10 pairs in New York City. Subjects (S) looked at a target (T), closed their eyes, walked forward and then pointed to T after variable distances. Although other PD Ss tested on a post rotation and memory test showed no difference between patients and controls, control Ss in the U.K. and the U.S. showed mean pointing errors of 7.6° and 12° respectively while the PD groups made errors of 22.6° and 30°. We propose that this deficit was not related to memory per se, but updating of memory during walking.
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Arcement, R., Ingle, D., Thompson, J. et al. Spatial Memory Deficits In Parkinsonism. Neuropsychopharmacol 11, 264 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1380131
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1380131