Method for assessing navigational capacity
AssigneeUniversity of Rochester Medical Center
InventorsCharles J. Duffy, Laura Cushman, Mark Mapstone
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for assessing the navigational capacity in human subjects, and its use in diagnosing spatial disorientation in neurodegenerative diseases, such as, for example Alzheimer's disease. The method for assessing the navigational capacity includes conducting a spatial orientation test, recording the results of the test, analyzing the test results and making a determination of the navigational capacity of a human subject. In its most simple sense, navigational capacity includes the capacity not to get lost. The spatial orientation test includes various naturalistic navigation tasks that are each designed to assess specific areas of the navigational capacity of a subject.
Claims26
A method for assessing the navigational capacity in a human subject, comprising:
- taking the subjects on a course of a predetermined path in an environment, wherein said path comprises a plurality of turning points;
- conducting a spatial orientation test comprising asking the subject questions concerning said path;
- recording the subject's response to said questions as a test score;
- analyzing said test score to obtain analyzed result;
- and
- assessing the subject's navigational capacity using said analyzed result.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.