Dementia patients given hope with video game that spots tell-tale signs of condition

SCIENTISTS have developed a video game to diagnose dementia before it would otherwise be detected.

The technology also tracks patients’ progress and can alert doctors if it notices any serious decline – meaning sufferers could get help when they need it instead of having to wait months between appointments.

Researchers at King’s College London are testing the ability of the software – called Thymia – to detect conditions such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia. They plan to start clinical trials in NHS patients in the summer.

Dr Emilia Molimpakis, a neuroscientist and co-founder and chief executive of Thymia, said: “In the early stages of a disease, clinicians can struggle to differentiate [these conditions] from depression but this technology can clearly distinguish between types.

“It means we will be able to detect early signs of these conditions and monitor how they deteriorate over time.”

Patients can use the software at home on any smart device or computer with a webcam and internet connection.

It asks them to play simple games, like tapping an animated bee character on a screen or verbally describing a picture, while monitoring their voice, eye movements and “micro-expressions” – tiny movements of the face.

Combining behavioural data about how well someone can complete a task with how they speak and move gives the artificial intelligence technology a detailed profile of their cognitive ability – known as their personal “signature”. If a patient’s profile is very similar to the typical “signature” seen in people with an early form of condition like dementia, it is likely they have the disease.

Someone with a condition like mild cognitive impairment – often a precursor to dementia – may be less likely to be able to divide their attention between moving objects on a screen than a healthy person of the same age.

They might also speak in slightly disjointed sentences and have less ability to maintain continuous eye contact or have microscopic facial twitches. While none of these symptoms might be obvious to a human observer, the technology can pick up tiny differences in ability between the patient and a healthy person – and it knows that all these features in combination are a telltale sign something is wrong.

“Combining data from three streams – speech, movement and behaviour – gives us a clearer picture than looking at these in isolation,” Dr Molimpakis said.

“When you combine all of these aspects, we get very strong signatures for conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.”

Patients must be invited to use the programme by a GP or specialist doctor and the results are sent to the clinician.

This means patients will not receive bad news about their health through the app and a doctor will make a final diagnosis, based both on information from the app and an in-person assessment. But once they have been assessed, patients are free use the programme as often as they like.

The results are sent directly to their doctor, who will be alerted to any signs they are deteriorating more quickly than expected.

“Typically with these conditions, you might have one assessment and be diagnosed and then it can be months until the next follow-up, while in the meantime, there’s no way of monitoring how things are going,” said Dr Molimpakis.

“This technology means patients can assess and monitor their condition remotely and continuously.”

Katherine Gray, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “[Thymia] could [identify] unique sets of ‘fingerprints’ based on behaviour making it easier to tell dementia from other conditions, and one type of dementia from another.”