Familiar symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and dementia include memory loss; inability to follow or continue with a conversation; a decline in exercising good judgment; confusion as to what day, month, season, or year it is; and social withdrawal. But a recent study points to a warning sign that precedes all these symptoms, to the surprise of many. According to research published in the journal of Alzheimer's disease, navigational issues may crop up before memory loss, and well before a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's is made. Participants in the study were asked to navigate a virtual maze on a computer, using various patterns and landmarks to find their way around. The study consisted of a control group of healthy subjects and a group who had preclinical alzheimer's - they had a few markers but weren't clinically diagnosed. The preclinical Alzheimer's test subject had far greater difficulty assessing, mapping, and navigating their virtual environment th...