Dr. Omar J. Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience & Biomedical Engineering
 

How the Brain Helps Us Navigate and Why People With Alzheimer's Disease Can Struggle to Find Their Way Home

Abstract: Charles Darwin used the term “dead reckoning” to describe the remarkable ability of most species to seamlessly navigate back home, even in the absence of external guiding cues. Finding our way home is indeed something most of us take for granted, but this facility is dramatically impaired in many people with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. In this talk we will explore how the brain has evolved to support our sense of space and our sense of orientation. We will then examine how subtle alterations to specific brain regions can lead to profound spatial disorientation and discuss the implications for future therapeutic interventions.

Stream talk here.

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