A helping hand for early dementia

摘要

Software that can interpret brain scans to "read people's minds" could help those developing common forms of dementia get better treatment. Dementia can be diagnosed through verbal tests of cognitive skills and memory, but these cannot distinguish reliably between different forms of the condition at an early stage. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the brain allow more accurate diagnosis, but only an expert can interpret them. The new software is designed to help non-specialists diagnose dementia from PET scans. "A novice supported by this system should perform at a similar level to an expert," says Ralph Buchert of the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.