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A new brainwave test could detect early signs of Alzheimer’s years before diagnosis — in just three minutes.
That’s according to researchers at the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, who recently tested the new technology — called Fastball EEG — in patients’ homes.
The three-minute test records electrical activity in the brain as the person looks at a series of images. It is designed to pick up on signs of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which often precedes Alzheimer’s.
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Because Fastball is a “passive” EEG test, it automatically picks up on the brain’s responses without requiring the participants to answer questions or recall information.
This makes it less likely to be influenced by factors such as anxiety, education, culture or language, according to study lead Dr. George Stothart, a cognitive neuroscientist in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath.
“Fastball is sensitive to both pre-diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease and individuals at very high risk of developing it,” Stothart told Fox News Digital. “Importantly, EEG data collection for Fastball is entirely feasible in people’s homes, making it a practical tool for real-world use.”
In the trial, 53 patients with mild cognitive impairment and 54 healthy older adults were tested with the tool to gauge their memory skills. They were then re-tested after one year.
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The patients with MCI were found to have “significantly reduced” memory-related brain responses compared to those without any cognitive decline.
The findings were published in the journal Brain Communications.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the test-retest reliability in healthy older adults,” Stothart said. “In the one-year follow-up, measurements remained stable, indicating that for healthy older adults, Fastball provides consistent results over time.”
The main limitation, according to Stothart, is that the researchers didn’t have biomarker data for participants with MCI due to cost and resource constraints.
“It could be valuable to investigate how this technology could complement other diagnostic methods.”
“However, our larger ongoing clinical validation studies in the U.K. and U.S., each involving 1,000 patients, now include extensive biomarker coverage,” he noted.
The hope is that the tool can be rolled out for use in doctors’ offices, memory clinics or homes, helping to enable earlier Alzheimer’s diagnoses.
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That could allow patients to get earlier access to key Alzheimer’s drugs, like donanemab and lecanemab, which are most effective earlier in the disease progression, researchers said.
“Patients themselves do not receive the Fastball results directly,” Stothart said. “Instead, results are provided to the clinician, who integrates them into a broader diagnostic assessment.”
“Fastball is another valuable tool that clinicians can choose to include as part of their diagnostic battery.”
Christopher Weber, Ph.D., senior director of global science initiatives at the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, said this technology has potential as a non-invasive tool for the detection of memory changes that could indicate the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
“However, more research is needed before this could be considered for inclusion in the diagnostic toolbox for Alzheimer’s,” Weber, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
“This includes confirmation of these findings in larger, more representative study populations, over longer periods of time, where tests are done to confirm that study participants have brain changes related to Alzheimer’s.”
Weber also pointed out that this technology does not appear to determine the cause of the memory loss.
“As a result, it is unclear what the results of this test may mean about your Alzheimer’s risk and/or your health status,” he said. “So even if this tech proves itself with further research, it is still likely that additional tests, looking at disease-related biomarkers or imaging of the brain, would also be needed to inform treatment or risk reduction.”
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Despite the limitations, Weber said Fastball may prove to be valuable for initial screening or to inform a patient’s conversations with their doctor.
“And it could be valuable to investigate how this technology could complement other diagnostic methods, such as PET scans, blood tests and ‘paper-and-pencil’ cognitive assessments,” he added.
Any future use of at-home screening or testing should be done in a “careful and controlled way,” Weber advised.
He added, “When considering any Alzheimer’s- or dementia-related testing, it is important to have a conversation with your healthcare provider to see if you are a candidate.”
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The study was funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences and supported by dementia research charity BRACE.
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