Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026
The 4 Mountains Test: A Short Test of Spatial Memory with High Sensitivity for the Diagnosis of Pre-dementia Alzheimer's Disease
Published on: October 13, 2016
Visuospatial planning and problem solving in Alzheimer's disease patients: a study with the Tower of London Test
Massimo Franceschi1, Paolo Caffarra, Luc De Vreese
1Neurology Department, IRCCS Multimedica, Castellanza, Italy. massimo.franceschi@multimedica.it
Background:
Executive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been recently recognized as an early and prominent clinical sign. The Tower of London (ToL), a task specifically devised to test executive functions of visuospatial planning and problem solving, has frequently been used in neuropsychological experiments, but rarely in the clinical ground.
Methods:
One hundred and sixty-one AD patients and 212 nondemented healthy controls were administered a simplified ToL version.
Results:
AD patients were significantly impaired (p < 0.0001) in all ToL scores and in the total execution time. The 'accuracy' score of ToL at a cut off of
Conclusions:
Visuospatial planning and problem solving are significantly impaired in early dementia of the Alzheimer's type. A successful sensitivity/specificity ratio, the independence of education and the simplicity of this version of ToL make it a useful executive functioning screening test for early AD.
