题 目：Spatial navigation in early Alzheimer’s disease: The Apple Game story

主讲人：Nikolai Axmacher教授（波鸿鲁尔大学）

时 间：6月5日上午10:30-12:00

地 点：心理学院214会议室

讲座内容：

Deficits in spatial navigation are among the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. During preclinical stages, subtle alterations in the recruitment of specific navigational strategies may serve as a cognitive marker of regionally specific dysfunction and compensatory recruitment of less affected brain areas. In my talk, I will present results from a novel paradigm on path integration, the “Apple Game”. FMRI data in healthy participants as well as intracranial EEG recordings in epilepsy patients show that this paradigm can be used to measure grid cell-like representations in entorhinal cortex and compensatory recruitment of other brain regions such as retrosplenial cortex. We then characterized the relationship of Apple Game variables to other paradigms on spatial navigation and episodic memory and its link to established neuropsychological markers. Next, we studied alterations of navigational strategies and performance in the Apple Game related to aging, APOE status, SCD, biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease, and tau and amyloid PET. Finally, we investigated effects of chronic and acute stress that may interact with other risk factors to influence the course of Alzheimer’s disease.