Visual Perception of Rotating 3D Virtual Objects Presented in an Immersive Virtual Environment in Alazheimer's Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Normals

Despite significant neuropathology and abnormal functional imaging of secondary visual association areas in Alzheimer's disease (AD), single tests of visual perception are only variably abnormal in early AD. With the goal to develop a marker of preclinical AD, we designed a visual perception test of the ability to determine orientation of rotating 3D objects that hypothetically relies upon visual association neurons most vulnerable to degeneration in A (corticocortical neurons), and that process motion, 3D spatial relationships, and object recognition.