Ricerc@Sapienza

Mental Imagery (MI), the ability to see with the mind's eyes, is related to autobiographical memory deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Furthermore, preliminary data show a deficit in MI ability also in the prodromal dementia stage (i.e. Mild Cognitive Impairment-MCI). The hippocampus, affected by AD neuropathology since early stages, plays a pivotal contribution to the recollection of previous memories in service of MI; this could explain the MI deficit in MCI. Based on the current model of MI and findings that the various processes and contents of MI decline differently in physiological and pathological ageing, SeeD objectives are three-folded: clinically, SeeD aimed to (1) investigate the presence of MI deficit to confirm preliminary data in a larger sample of MCI and (2) to evaluate the reliability of MI assessment as an early neuropsychological marker of dementia, employing a computerized assessment that could be a feasible instrument to be implemented into a telemedicine platform; theoretically SeeD results (3) could provide new insight into the cognitive model of MI through the investigation of such ability in a pathological population that could be considered a clinical model to test cognitive one.