Mobile Game Attempts To Diagnose Alzheimer's

the_newsbeagle writes "Currently, the best way to check if a person has a high likelihood of developing Alzheimer's is to perform a PET scan to measure the amount of amyloid plaque in his or her brain. That's an expensive procedure. But a startup called Akili Interactive says it has developed a mobile game that can identify likely Alzheimer's patients just by their gameplay and game results. The game is based on a neuroscience study which showed that multitasking is one of the first brain functions to take a hit in Alzheimer's patients. Therefore the game requires players to perform two tasks at the same time."

Comments

not really far fetched at all

[Anonymous Coward]

the tests for concussions and MTBI seem a lot like hand/eye games.
like 30 minutes of maddening little games.

troops do them now before and after deployments.

Multitasking

[Dancindan84]

My wife says I fail this test on a regular basis.

Achievement Unlocked: Dementia!

[Anonymous Coward]

Gary has sent you five lives. Who the fuck is Gary?

There is a paper based 10 minute test

[WillAffleckUW]

that works just as well.

Your major risk factors continue to be (in order): being female, being old, having Apolipoprotein E alleles of a certain type, cardiovascular risk factors.

You can't do anything about the first three, and by the time most people pay attention, it's far too late, so I'd focus on the last part, quite frankly.

(this is not saying we're not looking into biomarkers, or other things, but a shorthand about your actual risk as a person, if you're not in a family with high Early Onset AD risk)

In general, other than that, reduce stress, get enough sleep, get mild to moderate exercise (even an added block of walking makes a big difference), eat a varied diet, and avoid repeated head injuries (and if you get those, stop playing for longer than you think).