Research into younger minds may provide fruits for dementia research that could offer older people in home care more treatment options.
Scientists at Oxford University and Imperial College London say they have found a genetic modification that makes people four times as likely to eventually develop late-o
nset dementia.
The researchers followed studied the brains of volunteers aged 20-35 and found that hyperactivity in the hippocampus, previously shown in some studies to be a possible sign of dementia in older patients, was prevalent in the participants although they showed no reduced cognitive function.
"We were surprised to see that even when the volunteers carrying [the marker] weren’t being asked to do anything, you could see the memory part of the brain working harder than it was in the other volunteers," says Dr Christian Beckmann
The authors of the study are hopeful that further research in patients who are beginning to experience cognitive issues may lead to a diagnostic tool that would allow for earlier identification and treatment of the disease.
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