A Video Game Developed To Detect Alzheimer’s Disease Seems To Be Working
According to researchers, every two minutes spent playing the game is equal to five hours of lab-based research. Because _Sea Hero Quest_has been out for a few years and downloaded and played by over three million players they’ve collected the equivalent of 1,700 years of research data on Alzheimer’s
Researchers involved with the project studied people who carried the APOE4 gene, which is thought to increase that person’s risk of developing dementia, as they played the game. They then compared these people’s results to the results of folks who played the game who don’t have that gene.
“We found that people with a high genetic risk, the APOE4 carriers, performed worse on spatial navigation tasks. They took less efficient routes to checkpoint goals,” said Professor Michael Hornberger, a member of the team.
Two minutes. 99.33% of time shaved off. Truly incredible.