Photo Credit: Rene Terp
Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Spatial Navigation and Memory (SPAM) Questionnaire
The Core Concept: The Spatial Navigation and Memory (SPAM) Questionnaire is a self-reporting tool designed to assess individuals' perceived spatial navigation and memory function to detect early signs of cognitive decline.
Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional clinical assessments that focus primarily on memory loss, the SPAM questionnaire specifically targets spatial navigation difficulties, such as getting lost in familiar places, which often precede noticeable memory deficits in Alzheimer's disease.
Major Frameworks/Components:
- Self-Reported Assessment: Captures an individual's perceived spatial navigation and memory function over their lifetime and within the past three months.
- Dual-Domain Measurement: Evaluates two distinct but related cognitive functions: spatial navigation and memory.
Branch of Science: Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, Gerontology.
Future Application: Upon further validation in patients diagnosed with dementia, the SPAM questionnaire could become a routine, time-efficient clinical screening tool for early detection of Alzheimer's disease.
Why It Matters: By providing clinicians with a structured method to track spatial navigational difficulties, this tool can facilitate earlier identification of cognitive decline, removing subjectivity and allowing families to better plan for patient safety.
Cognitive decline can affect more than memory. It can also make it harder to navigate familiar places and find your way—including finding your way home from the supermarket.
Flinders University and other researchers are using spatial navigation as a new way to detect early changes in cognitive health.
Published by the Alzheimer’s Association, the new Spatial Navigation and Memory (SPAM) Questionnaire aims to serve as a tool for more accessible, time-efficient clinical testing that is sensitive to cognitive aging.
In a study involving 940 older adults, Flinders cognitive neuroscientists Dr. Monique Boord and Dr. Stephanie Wong led the assessment of the self-report SPAM questionnaire, finding that it captures individuals’ perceived spatial navigation and memory function both across their lifetime and within the past three months.
“We found that the SPAM captured two distinct but related aspects of cognitive function, spatial navigation and memory responses, in healthy older adults. These findings provide support for the SPAM as a measure of these domains and its use in cognitive aging,” says Dr. Boord, Research Fellow in Mental Health at Flinders University.
“Difficulty navigating unfamiliar environments and subtle disorientation are common in Alzheimer’s disease, and often precede noticeable memory loss and later significant navigational deficits.”
Senior coauthor Dr. Wong adds, “People in the early stages of dementia often face a hidden challenge. They begin to struggle with directions and get lost, even in familiar places.
“While patients notice these changes, clinicians haven’t had a step-by-step checklist to ask about them.
“Relying on personal memory is too subjective. By introducing a structured way to track these spatial navigational difficulties, our research team can help clinicians remove the guesswork, spot cognitive decline much sooner, and help families plan their loved ones’ safety.”
While research suggests that changes in spatial navigation may emerge in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, spatial navigation is not routinely assessed in clinical settings.
The authors say the new research validates the SPAM questionnaire and may offer a practical and time-efficient tool for clinicians to assess spatial navigation and memory ability once also validated in people with a diagnosis of dementia.
Funding: The research is supported by the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF2023947) and the UK Department for Transport (R208830). Professor Wong is supported by an NHMRC Investigator Grant (GNT1196904).
Published in journal: Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring
Title: Development and validation of the Spatial Navigation and Memory Questionnaire (SPAM)
Authors: Monique S. Boord, Sol Morrissey, Hannah A. D. Keage, Victor R. Schinazi, Michael Hornberger, and Stephanie Wong
Source/Credit: Flinders University
Edited by: Scientific Frontline
Reference Number: ns082226_01
