Dementia

• Our latest study shows that a loss of visual sensitivity can predict dementia 12 years before it is diagnosed.
• Our research was based on 8,623 healthy people in Norfolk, England, who were followed up for many years.
• By the end of the study, 537 participants had developed dementia, so we could see what factors might have preceded this diagnosis.
• People who would develop dementia were much slower to see this triangle on the screen than people who would remain without dementia.

Recognising faces

• We have some evidence which suggests that people with dementia tend to process new people’s faces inefficiently.
• In other words, they don’t follow the usual pattern of scanning the face of the person they are talking to.
• So this early issue in not recognising people you have just met could be related to ineffective eye movement for new faces, rather than being a pure memory disorder.

Can eye movement improve memory?

• Previous research on the matter is mixed, but some studies found that eye movement can improve memory.
• In other studies, eye movements from left to right and right to left done quickly (two eye movements per second) were found to improve autobiographical memory (your life story).
• Also, using deficits in eye movements as a diagnostic is not a regular feature, despite the possibilities in eye movement technology.

Eef Hogervorst receives funding from the Dunhill Medical Trust [email protected] receives funding from Road Safety Trust. He is affiliated with Applied Vision Association. Ahmet Begde does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.