Australian researchers are putting a new way to detect early changes in cognitive health to the test.
Researchers at Flinders University have developed a new tool to detect early changes in cognitive health.
Dubbed the Spatial Navigation and Memory (SPAM) Questionnaire – no relation to the pre-cooked canned meat product, mind you – the tool is marketed as a more accessible, time-efficient clinical test that is sensitive to cognitive ageing.
The development and validation of the SPAM was described in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. Nine hundred and seventy healthy older adults (aged ≥65 years) completed the SPAM electronically, where they were asked questions about recent (18 items, relating to the last three months) and lifetime (12 items) spatial navigation and memory abilities.
The spatial navigation questions covered topics such as general navigation behaviour, egocentric and allocentric navigation strategy use, spatial memory, and disorientation, while the memory items focused on the recall of events, names, and faces, learning new information, and attentional memory problems.
“Difficulty navigating unfamiliar environments and subtle disorientation are common in Alzheimer’s disease, and often precedes noticeable memory loss and later significant navigational deficits,” said cognitive neuroscientist and lead author Dr Monique Boord (PhD).
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported the SPAM as an appropriate assessment of spatial navigation and memory abilities in this particular cohort. In addition, spatial navigation scores on the SPAM were correlated with performance on a virtual shopping task (an objective measure of spatial navigation performance that can discriminate between Alzheimer’s disease and non-Alzheimer’s disease dementias).
“Greater difficulties with recent spatial navigation on the SPAM were associated with greater egocentric and allocentric navigation errors on the VST,” the researchers wrote.
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Dr Stephanie Wong (PhD), a senior lecturer in the College of Human Sciences and Culture at Flinders University and senior author on the new research, echoed Dr Boord’s comments.
“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,” she said in a statement. “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.”
These findings are related to the Spatial Navigation Assessment Validation and Implementation (SNAVI) study, which is currently recruiting participants in Adelaide. Individuals with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease may be eligible to participate.
Further details about the SNAVI study are available via the Dementia Australia website.
Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, 11 August 2026
