Simple Test May Detect Your
Alzheimer’s Risk Before Dementia Shows Up
Alzheimer’s group had slower
reaction, movement time, as well as less accuracy, precision in their
18, 2014 — If you really want to know if you are at risk for Alzheimer’s
disease,York University researchers say a simple test that
combines thinking and movement may reveal your risk, even before any
obvious signs of dementia are obvious.
The researchers asked the
participants to complete four increasingly demanding visual-spatial and
cognitive-motor tasks, on dual screen laptop computers. The test aimed
at detecting the tendency for Alzheimer’s in those who were having
cognitive difficulty even though they were not showing outward signs of
the disease. The study was led by faculty of Health Professor Lauren
Sergio and PhD candidate Kara Hawkins.
“We included a task which involved
moving a computer mouse in the opposite direction of a visual target on
the screen, requiring the person’s brain to think before and during
their hand movements,” says Sergio in the School of Kinesiology & Health
“This is where we found the most
pronounced difference between those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
and family history group and the two control groups.”
Hawkins adds, “We know that really
well-learned, stereotyped motor behaviours are preserved until very late
in Alzheimer’s disease.” These include routine movements, such as
walking. The disruption in communication will be evident when movements
require the person to think about what it is they are trying to do.
For the test, the participants were
divided into three groups – those diagnosed with MCI or had a family
history of Alzheimer’s disease, and two control groups, young adults and
older adults, without a family history of the disease.
“The brain’s ability to take in
visual and sensory information and transform that into physical
movements requires communication between the parietal area at the back
of the brain and the frontal regions,” explains Sergio.
“The impairments observed in the
participants at increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease may reflect
inherent brain alteration or early neuropathology, which is disrupting
reciprocal brain communication between hippocampal, parietal and frontal
“In terms of being able to
categorize the low Alzheimer’s disease risk and the high Alzheimer’s
disease risk, we were able to do that quite well using these kinematic
measures,” says Hawkins. “This group had slower reaction time and
movement time, as well as less accuracy and precision in their
Hawkins says the findings don’t
predict who will develop Alzheimer’s disease, but they do show there is
something different in the brains of most of the participants diagnosed
with MCI or who had a family history of the disease.
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