2023-06-22 12:00:08
Researchers detect Alzheimer’s before the first symptoms thanks to the telephone © Adobe stock
American researchers have succeeded in detecting people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s even before the first symptoms. And this, simply by making them handle their mobile phone.
A phone test
Researchers from Mass General Brigham (USA) have developed a simple test to detect the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease. This test consists of a simulated task of navigation in a telephone menu. Their results were published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
The Harvard Automated Phone Task
This test is called the Harvard Automated Telephone Task (APT). This test includes three tasks associated with a telephone menu:
the renewal of an order,
the call of a health insurance company to select a new doctor, the management of a Bank transaction.
A third of participants diagnosed
Participants in this test navigate through an interactive voice response system to complete the three tasks. a little less thana third of the participantswith no apparent cognitive impairment at the time of the test, nevertheless presented signs of amyloid and tau raised in their brains. These two signs are precursors to Alzheimer’s disease. These same people had problems with the most difficult tasks on the test. “The implication is that we may actually detect clinically significant change much earlier than expected,” says Gad Marshall, neurologist and lead author of the study.
Sources : Eureka Alert, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease,
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