Affiliations: Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for
Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, UK | Human Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK | Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive
Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh,
UK | Department of Psychology, University of
Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: Jennifer A. Foley, Human Cognitive
Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 8AA, UK.
Tel.: +44 131 650 9867; Fax: +44 131 650 3461; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Several studies have found dual tasking to be impaired in
Alzheimer's disease (AD), but unaffected by healthy ageing. It is not known if
this deficit is specific to AD, or also present in other neurodegenerative
disorders that can occur in later life, such as Parkinson's disease (PD).
Therefore, this study investigated dual tasking in 13 people with PD, 26 AD and
42 healthy age-matched controls. The people with AD demonstrated a specific
impairment in dual tasking, which worsened with increasing disease severity.
The people with PD did not demonstrate any deficits in dual tasking ability,
when compared to healthy controls, suggesting that the dual task impairment is
specific to AD.
