A revolutionary new brain scanning method predicts Alzheimer’s disease up to nine years earlier, offering hope for timely interventions and deeper insight into dementia progression.
A new method of predicting Alzheimer’s disease up to nine years in advance holds great promise in the fight against the disease, thanks to a collaboration between Queen Mary University in London and Monash University in Australia. Their neurobiological model uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze brain recordings.
With an accuracy rate of more than 80 percent, their model could revolutionize early diagnosis and solve the challenge of undiagnosed dementia cases. Predicting who will develop dementia in the future will be key to developing treatments that can prevent the irreversible loss of brain cells that causes dementia symptoms, says neuroscientist Charles Marshall of Queen Mary University of London.
The research, which is published in the journal Nature Mental Health, focuses on the default mode network (DMN), a brain system that is initially affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The DMN plays a key role in organizing thoughts by connecting different regions of the brain. The study involved brain scans of 81 people who later developed dementia and 1,030 matched controls, identifying signs of dementia up to nine years in advance. An fMRI scan is simple to perform and only takes a few minutes.
The accuracy of the technique extends to predicting the time of dementia diagnosis within two years. This information is invaluable because it allows scientists to compare them with other known risk factors for dementia to build a comprehensive picture of disease progression.
By using these analysis techniques with large data sets, we can identify those at high risk of dementia, and also find out what environmental risk factors pushed those people into the high-risk zone, says Queen Mary neuroscientist Samuel Ereira. University in London
Scientists have also linked Alzheimer’s risk factors, such as genetics and social isolation, to changes in DMN connectivity. Understanding these triggers is key in the search for a cure.
In addition, the technique is useful for studying individuals whose brains show signs of dementia but who develop symptoms much later. That understanding can shed light on the progression of the condition and its potential slowing.
“Our hope is that the measure of brain function we’ve developed will allow us to be much more precise about whether someone will actually develop dementia and how quickly, so we can identify whether future treatments will benefit them,” Marshall explains.
Source: Science Alert
