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A family member may notice that their loved one is experiencing dementia. This could be a spouse becoming forgetful or a parent who loses their temper more often. There are many options: brain scans, memory and behavior tests, brain scans, if you have the funds, or one of the new blood tests to determine the biomarkers for brain damage. Then, nothing.
According to a 2016 survey of neurodegenerative diseases, dementia and Alzheimer's are more fearful than heart disease and cancer combined. One of the most terrifying things about them is how little information we still have. There are no cures and very few effective treatments.
You might be skeptical about the effectiveness of a 5-minute test that can determine your risk of developing dementia before you experience any symptoms. Cognetivity Neurosciences has developed the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA), a test that assesses your risk of developing dementia. It is currently being tested at several NHS trusts across the UK. Is it really worth taking a test to determine if you have a disease that you cannot control?
Sina Habibi, Cognetivity CEO, says that the ICA was designed to be a screening test. It could be used as part of an annual over-50s health check-up, to look for signs of neurodegenerative diseases before they manifest in behavior. He says, "In the same manner you examine blood pressure, you can look at the brain using a cognitive test in order to determine if there is a problem."
A timely diagnosis can help people plan ahead and organize their finances. But, it's something that they should be doing anyway. Lifestyle changes such as exercising more, eating less, and drinking less can all help reduce the risk of vascular dementia. This is a condition that is linked closely to heart health.
This procedure works on an iPad. The screen shows a zebra, which then disappears and is replaced by a railway bridge. The screen shows flashes in black and white of beach scenes, followed by a glimpse at an exotic bird. These images are interspersed with fuzzy static and monochrome grids--a captcha at warp speeds. The task of the user is easy: Tap on the right side of screen when they see an animal in one the photos, and on the left side if they don't.
This test was developed from research at the University of Cambridge and is intended to replace pen and paper memory tests that are often used in the early stages of a dementia diagnosis. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is a widely used test that requires subjects to identify animals using line drawings, copy cubes, and read a list with words. Instead, the ICA uses an AI that was trained on patients with early-onset Alzheimer's. It combines speed and accuracy of the iPad task with information about lifestyle, age and ethnicity to calculate a risk score.
