What is it about?

The detection of cognitive impairment in very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease is still a challenge in clinical practice since first signs of impending AD can be very subtle. We developed a novel neuropsychological task to specifically assess the functioning of the brain structures affected very early in Alzheimer’s disease.

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Why is it important?

The study shows that the new computer task can discriminate patients in early stages of Alzheimer's disease from healthy adults. Even more, task performance was indeed associated with brain areas that are affected very early in Alzheimer’s disease. It supports the use of tasks like this for the early detection of Alzheimer's. Even more, it could also allow better differentiation between other etiologies of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

Perspectives

Further validation of this task could contribute to refining the detection of Alzheimer's in early stages and expand opportunities for targeted therapeutic intervention.

Marlen Frei
University Department of Geriatric Medicine FELIX PLATTER, Basel, Switzerland

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This page is a summary of: Can you find it? Novel oddity detection task for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease., Neuropsychology, October 2022, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/neu0000859.
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