Not just forgetfulness: US researchers have discovered another early symptom of Alzheimer’s that should put relatives and friends on the alert when it appears.
Forgetfulness, mood swings, sleep disorders or concentration problems are the first signs of Alzheimer’s. However, the disease is usually quite advanced by then. Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine (University of California) have now revealed another early symptom of Alzheimer’s: the willingness to give away money to strangers. This might also explain why older people are more prone to scams.
Older adults more vulnerable to fraud and exploitation
Grandchild trick and co: Fraudsters deliberately target older people. Because they know exactly that they question their machinations less critically. And despite media enlightenment, they have had an alarming amount of success with their rip-off methods. Why is that? The researchers wanted to get to the bottom of this very question. “Our goal is to understand why some older adults may be more vulnerable to financial exploitation than others,” study leader Prof Duke Han said in a university statement.1 Under laboratory conditions, he and his team had elderly men and women give away money to strangers. The surprising and also extremely insightful results were recently published in the journal “Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease”.2
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Giving away money under laboratory conditions
For their experiment, the scientists recruited 67 participants (average age 69 years), all of whom had no visible signs or known early symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer’s. In a lab, everyone was told they would be assigned to an unknown person. The test subjects then received ten US dollars each. Now they were supposed to split the money between themselves and the anonymous player in increments of one dollar as they wished. Participants also completed a series of neuropsychological tests, including story and word recall tasks.
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Those who willingly give away money do worse in cognitive tests
It found that participants who gave away more money performed significantly worse on neuropsychological tests (which are known to be indicative of early Alzheimer’s disease). “Difficulty handling money have long been suspected to be one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s, and this finding as a new early symptom supports that notion,” Han continues. He and his team see a direct connection between a possible early stage of the disease and the willingness to give away money without a specific reason.
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Important: There are also monetary gifts that come from the heart
Generosity is a valuable quality. As the lead researcher points out: “The last thing we want is for people to think that financial altruism among older adults is a bad thing. It can certainly be a conscious and positive use of a person’s money.” Rather, the point is that seemingly sudden altruistic behavior on the part of older friends or relatives can be a red flag to those close to them. Those who pay attention not only protect their loved ones from financial exploitation. As a new, important early symptom, it may also help researchers distinguish what constitutes healthy giving behavior and what might indicate possible Alzheimer’s disease.
