New smartphone app, project aims to learn more about dementia
The Alzheimer’s Society and University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute in Oxford, England, are encouraging people in the United Kingdom to download a new smartphone application so researchers can learn more about dementia.
According to the Alzheimer’s Society's website, the two entities are conducting a research project to learn more about how the brain changes over time. The GameChanger app was developed for the project and features a collection of brain games designed to provide information on the brain.
The entities are asking thousands of people across the U.K. to download the GameChangers app and play the games for five a minutes per day, every day, for one month. Researchers believe the app and research project will help “prevent, slow down or even stop the progression of dementia.”
“The very early signs of Alzheimer’s can appear more than 10 years before diagnosis, but detecting these tiny changes is very difficult. Using the app, researchers are able to learn more about memory, thinking and learning skills of people without dementia,” the society’s website said.
“In the future this vital information will help us to identify the early changes in people who will go on to develop the condition. Researchers and doctors will then be able to make sure people showing early signs of the condition can take part in the latest and most promising research studies and clinical trials.”
People over the age of 18 and who haven’t been diagnosed with dementia are able to participate in the project. The app is only available on smartphones.
For more information about the project, visit www.alzheimers.org.uk/gamechanger.
Danielle covers Clinical Innovation & Technology as a senior news writer for TriMed Media. Previously, she worked as a news reporter in northeast Missouri and earned a journalism degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She's also a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, Bears and Bulls.