Activities of daily living in Alzheimer's disease: cognitive and neural correlates

During the course of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, patients develop cognitive and neuropsychiatric impairments, which increase in severity. These deficits impact their ability to perform everyday tasks, which leads to lower quality of life and loss of independence. This chapter contains a summary of the methods used to study activities of daily living (ADL) in patients with dementia. Associated information will be provided on the cognitive processes which are related to reductions in ADL. Much of the neuroimaging research has focused on identifying the brain regions that are subject to atrophy due to different pathologies, and on investigating the neural correlates of cognitive abilities such as memory. A much smaller number of functional and structural neuroimaging studies have been devoted specifically to identifying the brain regions that underpin functional abilities. This chapter will also review that literature, and will highlight the brain regions which are compromised when deficits in ADL are apparent. A more complete understanding of the neural underpinnings of functional abilities may enable more accurate prognosis and more effective interventions to be developed. The chapter will include suggestions for future directions for the study of ADL.