Relating attention related activities of daily living with cognitive performance on attentional network task in patients with Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAttentional functioning plays a crucial role in task performance in the daily facets of life, and impairments in attention are present in a multitude of psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, and schizophrenia. The assessment of attention has been achieved by Attention Network Test (ANT) in various research which is a computerized testing measure that was developed to measure these three networks of attention viz. alerting, orienting and executive control.MethodThe attentional network task consists of alerting, orienting and executive control. In the present study the relationship between performance on attention network system and activities of daily living was analyzed on 15 mild dementia of Alzheimer’s type. The activities of daily living has been measured through Everyday Activities Scale in India (EASI). Further, correlation has been calculated in alerting, orienting and executive control and scores on EASI.ResultThe result found that alerting has been significantly positive correlated with items on EASI related to understand events, deliver message. The orienting network has been significantly positive correlated with items on EASI related to toilet location, shirt buttoned, lose way in village. The executive control network is significantly positive correlated with items on EASI related to complete task, dress properly.ConclusionThe result showed a relation between attention network and activities of daily living which showed that attention is the prerequisites for various of the daily functioning.