New smartphone game can save a patient from Alzheimer

News Bharati    06-May-2019
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London, May 6: An Alzheimer is a disease of the brain which causes serious memory loss, confusion and other major changes in the way our minds work may be a sign that brain cells are failing. An Alzheimer's diagnosis usually does not appear until years after the disease has taken hold. If a smartphone is used smartly and utilize in an innovative way then it will play an angelic role which will detect the disease like Alzheimer in a proper time. A new smartphone game is using spatial navigation to detect Alzheimer's before it is too late. Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behaviour.

Sea Hero Quest game is the new smartphone game used for early detection of this disease.

"Research shows us that the brain changes associated with diseases like Alzheimer's begin decades before symptoms like memory loss start," says Hilary Evans, chief executive at Alzheimer's Research United Kingdom.

"Future Alzheimer's treatments to be effective, it's likely they must be given at the earliest stages of the disease before there's too much damage to the brain."

"We often hear heartbreaking stories about people with dementia who get lost and can't find their way home," continues Evans, adding that spatial navigation issues "are some of the earliest warning signs for the condition." Such problems are the focus of the Sea Hero Quest game, which encourages players to find their way around various mazes. So far, more than 4.3 million people across the globe have tried it.

In the current study, which features in the journal PNAS, the researchers compared how different people played the game and found some interesting results.

Another person develops Alzheimer's disease every 3 seconds, according to Alzheimer's Disease International. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks.

The most common early symptom of Alzheimer's is difficulty remembering newly learned information because Alzheimer's changes typically begin in the part of the brain that affects learning. As Alzheimer's advances through the brain, it leads to increasingly severe symptoms, including disorientation, mood and behaviour changes; deepening confusion about events, time and place; unfounded suspicions about family, friends and professional caregivers; more serious memory loss and behaviour changes; and difficulty speaking, swallowing and walking.