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Virtual Reality Test Detects Alzheimer’s Decades In Advance

According to new research out of the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn, a new virtual reality (VR) test can detect Alzheimer’s disease “decades before” it appears.

Our results provide evidence of behaviorally relevant entorhinal dysfunction in humans at genetic risk for AD, decades before potential disease onset.

In the study, which was published in the journal Science, German neuroscientists monitored the brain activity of volunteers as they navigated their way through a virtual world in which they were tasked with collecting ordinary objects strewn across the virtual realm.

After the researchers retrieve the littered items, they were then tasked with returning them to their original locations.

According to the researchers, the group believed to be at increased genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease “showed a different brain signal many decades before the onset of the disease, and they navigated differently in a virtual environment.”

The at-risk group showed a different brain signal many decades before the onset of the disease, and they navigated differently in a virtual environment (…) Our results could provide a new basic framework for preclinical research on Alzheimer’s disease and may provide a neurocognitive explanation of spatial disorientation in Alzheimer’s disease.

The Mirror quoted a spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Society as having said that 60 percent of the people out there that have dementia “never receive a diagnosis” and as a result, “hundreds of thousands of people do not have access to help.” Subsequently, improving and pioneering early identification techniques is “essential.”

At the time the research–led by Lukas Kunz–was conducted, all of the volunteers were between the ages of 18 and 30.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. Not to mention, it’s the only top 10 cause of death in America that can’t be cured, slowed or prevented.

It’s estimated that the number of people age 65 and older who suffer from the disease in the United States will rise to 7.1 million by 2025.

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