The Mobile Game That Can Detect Alzheimer's Risk

A study from the University of East Anglia (UEA) published in PNAS found a new mobile game can identify people at risk of Alzheimer's, reports Medical Xpress . The Sea Hero Quest game has players navigate mazes of islands and icebergs, with the scientists converting every 0.5 seconds of game play into data. The outcomes showed people with a genetic predisposition for developing Alzheimer's can be differentiated from those who are not on specific levels of the game. The team studied gaming data from 27,108 players between 50 and 75 years old and compared it to a smaller lab-based cohort of 60 people who underwent genetic testing. In that group, 31 volunteers carried the APOE4 gene, which is linked with Alzheimer's, while 29 people lacked it. "People with a high genetic risk, the APOE4 carriers, performed worse on spatial navigation tasks," said UEA Professor Michael Hornberger. "They took less efficient routes to checkpoint goals." In contrast, people lacking the APOE4 gene traveled about the same distance as those forming the baseline score, and this difference in performance was especially significant where the space to navigate was large and open. "It means that we can detect people who are at genetic risk of Alzheimer's based on how they play the game," Hornberger concluded.