New Memory Binding Test for the Early Detection of Alzheimer’s
Researchers have developed a new method to assist in the early detection of
Alzheimer’s Disease.
Dr Mario Parra at the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and
Cognitive Epidemiology has shown that Alzheimer’s patients have difficulty in
remembering the link between simple shapes and their colour. Healthy people of
the same age had no difficulty with this short-term memory task.
The findings, published in the Neurology journal ‘Brain’ show that Alzheimer’s
patients may remember that they saw the colour blue and an apple, but will fail to
retain the link between them and remember that they saw a blue apple. This
phenomenon appears well before other memory problems.
Early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease is notoriously difficult but crucial, as drugs
only slow the progress of the disease, rather than providing a cure. This new
technique could help doctors spot Alzheimer’s Disease at the critical early stage
and allow treatment that can help to reduce the impact of the disease.
Memory tests: Alzheimer’s patients have trouble remembering the link between
shapes and their colour
For more information, please contact Mario A Parra, Research Fellow, Human
Cognitive Neuroscience, Psyhcology. Tel 0131 650 8385.
Email M.A.Parra-Rodriguez@sms.ed.ac.uk