Volume : 4, Issue : 4, April - 2015

VISUO-PERCEPTIVE AND VISUO-CONSTRUCTIONAL DEFICITS IN LEWY BODY DISEASE

Dr. Barun Kumar

Abstract :

<p>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Introduction and Background: Dementia is a chronic neuro&amp;ndash;degenerative disorder characterized by progressive&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div&gt;cognitive loss. Alzheimers disease and the Lewy Body disease are the two most common causes ofage&amp;ndash;related&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;degenerative dementia. Visuo&amp;ndash;cognitive skills are a combination of very different cognitive functions being performed&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;by the visual system. These skills are impaired in both AD and DLB. The aim of this review is to evaluate various studies for these visuo&amp;ndash;cognitive&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;skills. Methodology: An exhaustive internet search of all relevant medical databases was carried out using a series of key&amp;ndash;word applications,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;including The Cochrane Liary, MEDLINE, PSYCHINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, SportDiscus, Science Citation Index, Index to Theses, ZETOC,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;PEDro, and OT Seeker, and OT search. We reviewed all the articles till March 2013 with key words of: visual skills, visual cognition, Dementia,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;Alzheimers disease, Dementia of Lewy Body disease. Results: Although most studies have used different tests for studying these abilities, in&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;general, these tests evaluated the individuals ability of 1) Visual recognition 2) Visual Discrimination 3) Visual attention and 4) Visuo&amp;ndash;perceptive&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;integration. Performance on various tests has been evaluated for assessing these skills. Most studies assessing such skills show that these skills are&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;impaired in DLB as compared to AD. Conclusion: Visuo&amp;ndash;cognitive skills are impaired in DLB. These impairments have evident neuropathological&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;correlations, but the direct neurobiological etiology is difficult to establish.&lt;/div&gt;</p>