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Real-space navigation testing differentiates between amyloid-positive and -negative aMCI
Schöberl F, Pradhan C, Irving S, Buerger K, Xiong G, Kugler G, Kohlbecher S, Engmann J et al.. Neurology, 2020-01-02
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Objective To distinguish between patients with amyloid-positive (A+) and -negative (A-) amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) by simultaneously investigating navigation performance, visual exploration behavior, and brain activations during a real-space navigation paradigm. Methods Twenty-one patients with aMCI were grouped into A+ (n = 11) and A- cases by amyloid-PET imaging and amyloid CSF levels and compared to 15 healthy controls. Neuropsychological deficits were quantified by use of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease-plus cognitive battery. All participants performed a navigation task in which they had to find items in a realistic spatial environment and had to apply egocentric and allocentric route planning strategies. 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose was injected at the start to detect navigation-induced brain activations. Subjects wore a gaze-controlled, head-fixed camera that recorded their visual exploration behavior. Results A+ patients performed worse during egocentric and allocentric navigation compared to A- patients and controls ( p p Conclusions A+ patients with aMCI perform worse than A- patients with aMCI in egocentric and allocentric route planning because of a more widespread impairment of their cerebral navigation network. Navigation testing in real space is a promising approach to identify patients with aMCI with underlying Alzheimer pathology.
Key findings
- Methods Twenty-one patients with aMCI were grouped into A+ (n = 11) and A- cases by amyloid-PET imaging and amyloid CSF levels and compared to 15 healthy controls.
- Results A+ patients performed worse during egocentric and allocentric navigation compared to A- patients and controls ( p < 0.001).
Why it matters
Among 21 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, those with amyloid in the brain performed worse on real-space navigation tasks than those without amyloid and healthy controls. This suggests navigation testing might help identify which patients with mild cognitive impairment have underlying Alzheimer's disease, but the study was small.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 46/100
Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Neurology) |
| Journal's citation record | 4 / 4 | Neurology: journal h-index 525 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 2 / 5 | 2020 — within 10 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 4 / 7 | Cited 41 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 5.1 citations a year over 8 year(s) since 2020 |
| Impact for its field and year | 3 / 6 | Cited 3.0× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 1 / 6 | Cited by 1 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 2 / 4 | Cited 22 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 2 / 4 | Last-listed author Andreas Zwergal: h-index 37 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 2 / 3 | Imperial College London: institution h-index 1,744 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 2 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 7 institution(s) in 2 countries |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 31896617) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 46 / 100 | — |
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May need a subscription Unpaywall, Europe PMC and OpenAlex found no free copy of the full text (checked 10 Oct 2026), so the publisher may charge for it. The PubMed abstract is free.
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Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Schöberl, F., Pradhan, C., Irving, S., Buerger, K., Xiong, G., Kugler, G., et al. (2020). Real-space navigation testing differentiates between amyloid-positive and -negative aMCI. Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000008758
Vancouver
Schöberl F, Pradhan C, Irving S, Buerger K, Xiong G, Kugler G, et al. Real-space navigation testing differentiates between amyloid-positive and -negative aMCI. Neurology. 2020. doi:10.1212/wnl.0000000000008758. PMID: 31896617.
BibTeX
@article{schoberl2020-31896617,
author = {Schöberl, F. and Pradhan, C. and Irving, S. and Buerger, K. and Xiong, G. and Kugler, G. and Kohlbecher, S. and Engmann, J. and others},
title = {{Real-space navigation testing differentiates between amyloid-positive and -negative aMCI}},
journal = {Neurology},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.1212/wnl.0000000000008758},
pmid = {31896617},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000008758}
}
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