Relationship Between Neuropsychological and Physical Environmental Perception in Patients With Dementia and Alzheimer Disease

Objectives The current study examines the features of the physical environment affecting environmental perception and tries to explain paradigm of architecture based on the neuropsychological features. This paper investigates the relationship between the two aspects of the physical and neuropsychological environment in the patients with dementia Alzheimer’s type in order to meet the needs of the mental processes (sensation, perception, memory, and the organization of targeted behavior and adaptation to the environment for executive functions).
Methods This study was conducted by inductive content analysis method based on 9 semi-structured interviews and inductive content analysis from related literature.
Results Environmental perception was found as category based on two inductive content analyses. Moreover, 28 concepts of first level concepts (coding) and three concepts of “indifference to the elements in the physical environment”, “willingness to attend familiar places” and “stressors in unfamiliar places” as subcategories were obtained from semi-structured interviews.
Conclusion Explaining the features of the physical environment combined with neuropsychological environment can play a significant role in creating the habitat, care and treatment environment of these patients. Therefore, the sensory cue of the environment is effective in reducing behavioral disorders. Also, the perception of a more powerful environment means a greater interaction between these two dimensions of the environment.