Augmented Reality as a Potential Tool for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study

Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR) technologies are emerging tools in medical research, and may have particular benefit for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Consistent with the entorhinal cortex (EC) being the first brain region affected in AD, and the postulated role of the EC in spatial navigation, studies have shown that patients with early AD, prior to dementia onset, are preferentially affected on a VR task of navigation, with the navigational impairment driven by errors in angular estimation. The emergence of consumer grade AR devices provides a novel option for assessing angular estimation which may potentially be more suitable for use in routine diagnostic practice than fully immersive VR. This initial study aimed to design a simplified angular replication methodology and to ascertain the ease of use of AR technology. Twelve volunteers tested the application that required them to replicate an encoding angle using virtual markers within a real world environment. All participants successfully completed the 28 trials consistently within a similar timeframe. Spatial data from the headset provided valuable insights into performance, and questionnaire feedback indicated a positive user experience with minimal simulation sickness. This work demonstrates that angular estimation is testable with AR devices and that AR-based tasks have high user acceptability, highlighting the potential for AR in clinical practice for diagnosis of early AD.