Two-minute Alzheimer’s test could offer early diagnosis

A TWO-MINUTE brain test could diagnose Alzheimer’s five years sooner than existing methods, leading to early treatment to stave off dementia, scientists say.

Researchers at Bath University have developed a cap which contains electrodes and can measure people’s brain waves in response to a series of flashing images on a computer screen.

The technique picks up small, subtle changes in the brain which occur when a person remembers an image and detects early problems with memory.

Lead researcher Dr George Stothart, a cognitive neuroscientist, said: “It offers a genuinely novel way of measuring how our brain is functioning.

“The person being assessed doesn’t need to understand the test, or even respond, they simply watch a screen of flashing images and by the way we manipulate the images that appear we can learn an enormous amount about what their brain is, or is not, able to do.”

Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s usually requires a number of cognitive tests which are often open to interpretation and prone to assessment anxiety. These tests also require verbal and written communication abilities which make them ineffective for certain people and scientists believe that they can miss the first 20 years of the disease.

The new test – called Fastball EEG – is now being used in a study of the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease at Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

A paper showing the effectiveness of the test was published in the journal Brain.