Baycrest Academy for Research and Education

Published purpose

Dementia is a great public health problem, but treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have failed so far, partly because the disease is diagnosed too late for the damage to the brain to reverse. This project aims to validate a new brain health assessment that will identify individuals at risk of developing AD at very early stages using a simple, low-cost method. The assessment will measure the brain's response after eye blinks using a user-friendly electroencephalography (EEG) headset. The project will examine whether the blink-related responses measured with this portable system correlates with an individual's cognitive status, and by re-testing participants after 6, 12, and 24 months, we will determine whether blink-related responses can predict future cognitive decline. This project may result in a new assessment for brain health that may be deployed in primary care settings to help predict cognitive decline and dementia, ensuring more adults age well in place.