Virtual maze can predict Alzheimer’s in young adults
A virtual maze can predict if a young adult is at a high risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease later in life.
Young adults with a high risk for Alzheimer’s have altered brain regions that are crucial for spatial navigation. This brain area, the so-called entorhinal cortex, contains cells that fire in a spatial grid pattern, the grid cells.
Researchers from the Rurh University analysed the grid cell system in the entorhinal cortex of young students with and without Alzheimer’s risk genes. “The risk carriers showed a less stable grid pattern in the entorhinal cortex – many decades before they might develop Alzheimer’s dementia,” says Lukas Kunz, who conducted the experiment at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn.
Risk carriers moved less frequently in the centre of the virtual landscape, which indicates an altered navigation strategy. In the risk group, the brain activity in the memory system was generally increased. That might be short-term compensation of the reduced grid pattern, but it may also contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s dementia in the long term, according to the researchers.
Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Part of the reason may be that the disease is diagnosed too late. This study offers very early diagnosis so doctors can have a better understanding of the disease and how to handle it at its early stages.
“Our studies may contribute to a better understanding of early changes of Alzheimer’s dementia,” says lead researcher Nikolai Axmacher. “Now, it has to be verified if such changes also occur in older people at an early stage of Alzheimer’s dementia and if they can be affected by the application of drugs.”
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
