The life expectancy of the population has grown exponentially in recent years. This fact has a direct correlation with the increase in the number of people affected by diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, since age is the main determining factor in the development of these diseases.
In 2015 the data established that there were more than 47 million people in the world suffering from this disease, currently this figure has increased to 50 million. Progress is being unstoppable and it is estimated that by 2050 the figure could triple to exceed 150 million.
Currently there is no medicine to cure Alzheimer’s disease, so early detection remains the key to mitigating the damage before it is irreversible. The problem is that in its initial state it hardly presents any obvious symptoms.
The methods used for its detection are carried out through classic tests that have a large number of limitations. They have to be carried out by health professionals in a very controlled environment, which usually generates in the patient what is known as the white coat effect. These tests are carried out with paper and pencil, and they do not have much to do with real life situations, and they are usually done that when they are carried out the deterioration is quite advanced.
Detect cognitive damage before it’s too late
Faced with this situation, a multidisciplinary team made up of telecommunications engineers from the University of Vigo (Sonia Valladares-Rodríguez, Manuel J. Fernández Iglesias, Luis Anido-Rifón ,, Roberto Pérez-Rodríguez) and a psychologist from the University of Santiago (David Facal), are working on a plan that aims to overcome the limitations of these classic tests and try to detect cognitive damage before it is too late. For this they have developed a pioneering project, based on the use of artificial intelligence ( machine learning ). They have christened the system Panoramix, which consists of a battery of simple games to be recreated on a tablet. Through the use of virtual reality, everyday life scenarios can be simulated.
Panoramix is divided into different sections aimed at detecting impairment so that it covers the entire cognitive spectrum; each one of them is centered in evaluating a part: Episodix, the episodic memory; Attentix, attention; Workix, the working memory; Sematix, the semantic memory; Prospectix, procedural memory, and finally Gnoxis, which encompasses visual gnosis.
Several pilot projects have been carried out with older people and the results are being so promising that several scientific journals have decided to publish them, echoing the benefits that this type of “games” could have in controlling the development of this type of disease .
The article can be consulted here.
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