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A significant NIHR grant will enable researchers at Bath to develop revolutionary technology to help expand early dementia diagnosis.
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Through Fastball EEG, Dr George Stothart looks for subtle changes occurring in a patient’s brain waves, which can be early sign that dementia or Alzheimer’s may be present. Image credit: University of Bath.
A simple but revolutionary test to improve early detection for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease could soon be helping patients and their families, thanks to a significant £1.5 million funding boost awarded to the universities of Bath and Bristol.
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Supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)’s Invention for Innovation (i4i) funding, the project will see researchers Dr George Stothart and Dr Liz Coulthard scale-up testing and development for their innovative ‘Fastball EEG’ dementia assessment at Southmead Hospital in Bristol.
‘Fastball’ is a passive, completely non-invasive test which measures patients’ brain waves whilst they watch a series of flashing images displayed on a screen. Developed in-house by the researchers, the technology requires users to wear an electroencephalogram (EEG) headset, which is linked to a computer for analysis.
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Previous research from Dr Stothart, Dr Coulthard and colleagues has shown Fastball to be highly effective at picking up small, subtle changes in brain waves which occur when a person remembers an image. They have demonstrated that this response changes as a person develops dementia, offering hope as a breakthrough for early diagnosis.