Clinical Trials

Inclusion Criteria:

MCI and early AD subjects

• Licensed drivers aged 50-80 years,
• Primary/principle drivers in their households, and living independently by themselves, or along with a spouse or significant other.
• Subjects will be diagnosed with MCI or early AD according to standard clinical diagnostic criteria

Controls

• Licensed drivers aged 50-80 without known neurological, psychiatric, or sleep disorders,
• No history of cognitive or memory complaint symptoms,
• Required to manifest a normal bedside mental status score (i.e., 35 or higher total score with 3 of 4 items retained on the memory subtask on the Kokmen Short Test of Mental Status (STMS), or 28 or higher on the Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination, MMSE)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient and control subjects without an active driver license
• Individuals with known neurological disorders (or in case of MCI/early AD subjects, a known associated etiology such as a brain lesion, known diagnosis of parkinsonism, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia),
• Significant co-morbid medical or psychiatric disorder that could impact cognition (i.e., hepatic or renal insufficiency, active cancer diagnosis, active depression or anxiety disorder),
•  Individuals receiving centrally active prescription medications (i.e., antidepressants other than low to moderate dose SSRIs, opiate analgesics, or antipsychotics) will be excluded.
• Controls with STMS scores under 35 or MMSE scores under 28
• Individuals with a history of severe motion sickness,
• Corrected visual acuity of less than 20/50
• Labile hypertension or tachycardia (blood pressure > 180 mm Hg systolic, or 110 mm Hg diastolic, or pulse over 120 beats per minute)
• Untreated moderately severe or severe obstructive or central sleep apnea .
• Potential participants for whom English is not their first language will be excluded since the driving and neuropsychological tests are presented in English.