Test could predict risk of Alzheimer’s
New research has found that a new Alzheimer’s test with purple characters called Greebles could help detect risk of Alzheimer’s.
The researchers at the University of Louisville, found that people who are unable to detect the shape which is the odd one out in a series of images could be more at risk of developing the disease in the future.
Scientists have found that those who are genetically more at risk of the brain disease struggle to spot a minor difference in one of the images, despite being able to see subtle changes on people’s faces.
Dr Emily Mason, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Neurological Surgery said, “Right now, by the time we can detect the disease, it would be very difficult to restore function because so much damage has been done to the brain.”
“We want to be able to look at really early, really subtle changes that are going on in the brain. One way we can do that is with cognitive testing that is directed at a very specific area of the brain."
Volunteers were shown a set of four images of objects, faces and purple Greebles and were asked to spot the odd one out.
The genetically at-risk groups performed the same as everyone else when it came to objects and faces, but the at-risk group scored lower than their counterparts when they came to the Greebles section of the test.
Dr Mason said, "Most people have never seen a Greeble and Greebles are highly similar, so they are by far the toughest objects to differentiate.”
“What we found is that using this task, we were able to find a significant difference between the at-risk group and the control group. Both groups did get better with practice, but the at-risk group lagged behind the control group throughout the process."
Dr Mason would like to see further research observe whether the individuals who performed poorly in the test develop Alzheimer’s in the future.
"The best thing we could do is have people take this test in their 40s and 50s, and track them for the next 10 or 20 years to see who eventually develops the disease and who doesn't.
Answer for the image: No 4 is the odd Greeble as its arms and horns are subtly shaped differently to the other three Greebles.
Image credit: Michael J Tarr Centre for the Neural Basis of Cognition and Depertmanet of Psychology Carnegie Mellon University.