Motion perception deficit in Down Syndrome

Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies

It is a well established fact that Down Syndrome (DS) individuals have a tendency to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) (Lott, I.T., Head, E., 2005. Alzheimer disease and Down syndrome: factors in pathogenesis. Neurobiol. Aging 26, 383-389). They have therefore been proposed as a model to study the pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer's (Mann, D.M., 1988. The pathological association between Down syndrome and Alzheimer disease. Mech. Ageing Dev. 43, 99-136). One of the specific deficits exhibited by AD patients is optic flow motion perception (Tetewsky, S.J., Duffy, C.J., 1999. Visual loss and getting lost in Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 52, 958-965), but there are no corresponding systematic studies in DS individuals. We performed sensitivity measurements to optic flow with Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP) and psychophysical techniques in a group of young DS participants with mild mental retardation and without significant Alzheimer's clinical symptoms. We found a significant reduction in direction discrimination sensitivity to optic flow (random dots moving in radial, rotational and translational trajectories) in DS participants compared to mental age-matched controls, while their sensitivity to direction of control moving stimuli (sinusoidal gratings) was similar to age-matched controls. Measurements of Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP) showed no response to optic flow, although the response to control stimuli (contrast-reversal checkerboard patterns) was significant. Overall, our results show a selective and substantial deficit in the perception of optic flow motion and a corresponding suppression of electroencephalographic activity in DS individuals, thus establishing a further common trait between Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's disease.

Key findings

• We performed sensitivity measurements to optic flow with Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP) and psychophysical techniques in a group of young DS participants with mild mental retardation and without significant Alzheimer's clinical symptoms.
• We found a significant reduction in direction discrimination sensitivity to optic flow (random dots moving in radial, rotational and translational trajectories) in DS participants compared to mental age-matched controls, while their sensitivity to direction of control moving stimuli (sinusoidal gratings) was similar to age-matched controls.
• Measurements of Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP) showed no response to optic flow, although the response to control stimuli (contrast-reversal checkerboard patterns) was significant.
• Overall, our results show a selective and substantial deficit in the perception of optic flow motion and a corresponding suppression of electroencephalographic activity in DS individuals, thus establishing a further common trait between Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's disease.

Why it matters

Young people with Down syndrome but without significant Alzheimer's clinical symptoms showed reduced sensitivity to optic flow motion compared with mental age-matched controls, and visual evoked potentials showed no response to optic flow. This is a study of visual motion perception in young adults with Down syndrome, not a test of any treatment, cure, or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.

Study details

• Evidence strengthLow

Read the original

• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.06.005
• PubMed: 26057435
• Original source →

May need a subscription OpenAlex found no free copy of the full text (checked 6 Feb 1020), so the publisher may charge for it. The PubMed abstract is free.

@article{delviva2015-26057435,
  author  = {Del Viva, M. M. and Tozzi, A. and Bargagna, S. and Cioni, G.},
  title   = {{Motion perception deficit in Down Syndrome}},
  journal = {Neuropsychologia},
  year    = {2015},
  doi     = {10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.06.005},
  pmid    = {26057435},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.06.005}
}

Studies this one cites

Referenced by this study and also in the alzhub library, so you can read them here.

• Alzheimer's disease in Down's syndrome: clinicopathologic studies Neurology · 1985-07-01 · usefulness score 61/100 · Getting a diagnosis
• Occurrence of neuropathological changes and dementia of Alzheimer's disease in Down's syndrome Annals of Neurology · 1985-03-01 · usefulness score 56/100 · Down syndrome and Alzheimer's
• Sequence of cognitive decline in dementia in adults with Down's syndrome Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR · 2000-12-01 · usefulness score 54/100 · Down syndrome and Alzheimer's
• The pathological association between Down syndrome and Alzheimer disease Mechanisms of ageing and development · 1988-05-01 · usefulness score 44/100 · Down syndrome and Alzheimer's
• Alzheimer disease and Down syndrome: factors in pathogenesis Neurobiology of aging · 2005-03-01 · usefulness score 43/100 · Down syndrome and Alzheimer's
• Beta-amyloid, oxidative stress and down syndrome Current Alzheimer research · 2006-12-01 · usefulness score 39/100 · Down syndrome and Alzheimer's
• Alzheimer-like visual deficits in Down syndrome Alzheimer disease and associated disorders · 1997-06-01 · usefulness score 36/100 · Down syndrome and Alzheimer's

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