Disturbance of real space navigation in moderately advanced but not in early Huntington's disease

Abstract

Background: Visuospatial skills including spatial navigation are known to be impaired in Huntington's disease. Spatial navigation comprises two navigational frameworks, allocentric and egocentric. Several studies have associated the allocentric navigation with the hippocampus and the egocentric navigation with the striatum. The striatum is predominantly impaired from the early stages of Huntington's disease. Objective: To find whether spatial navigation impairment is present in the early stages of Huntington's disease and to test the hypothesis that the egocentric navigation is predominantly affected compared to the allocentric navigation. Methods: In nineteen patients with Huntington's dise..