If you cant identify the people in the photograph, you could be developing early onset Alzheimer's disease (if you are middle aged)
Test detects the disease by asking people to name and identify famous people from a photograph
People who struggle to put names to faces are more likely to have a loss of brain tissue in the left temporal lobe of the brain
Those with trouble recognising faces have tissue loss on both sides of the temporal lobe
Take a look at the pictures below. Do the names of these famous people spring to mind? If not, you might have just failed the latest test devised to spot the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease in middle aged people.
A new study has revealed that people aged between 40 and 65 who struggle to identify famous faces, such as those of Bill Gates, Albert Einstein and Princess Diana, might be displaying the first signs of Alzheimer’s.
The research suggests that this simple test could be used to help doctors identify early onset dementia in some people.
Researcher, Tamar Gefen, at Northwestern University in Chicago, explained: ‘These tests also differentiate between recognising a face and actually naming it, which can help identify the specific type of cognitive impairment a person has.’
To conduct the study, the researchers studied 30 people with primary progressive aphasia, a type of early onset dementia that mainly affects language, and 27 people without dementia.
They were each given a test which asked them to name 20 famous faces including John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Elvis Presley.
Each participant was given a point for each face they could name.
If the person could not name the face, they were asked to identify the person by describing them.
Participants gained more points by providing at least two relevant details about the person. The two groups also underwent MRI brain scans.
The researchers found that the people who had early onset dementia performed significantly worse on the test, scoring an average of 79 per cent in recognition of famous faces and 46 per cent in naming the faces, compared to 97 per cent in recognition and 93 per cent on naming for those free of dementia.
The study also found that people who had trouble putting names to the faces were more likely to have a loss of brain tissue in the left temporal lobe of the brain, while those with trouble recognising the faces had tissue loss on both sides of the temporal lobe.
‘In addition to its practical value in helping us identify people with early dementia, this test also may help us understand how the brain works to remember and retrieve its knowledge of words and objects,’ Mr Gefen said.
Lead researcher, Dr Emily Rogalski told The Times: ‘Many of those at greatest risk [of developing dementia] are those that are starting to show subtle deficiencies and it’s important to have a method that can pick this up.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2391154/Alzheimers-disease-Name-famous-faces-If-developing-illness.html#ixzz2bse09HPG
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