Face test for dementia screening

Pictures of famous people should help in the early diagnosis of dementia

08/16/2013

A simple test to recognize world famous celebrities such as Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley, Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey, „can help doctors recognize dementia early“, reports Northwestern University in a recent press release. Tamar Gefen, a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University, developed the so-called „Northwestern University Famous Faces “-Tests (short NUFFACE test). Her research will be published in the upcoming issue of the journal „Neurology“ presented.

With the help of the specially adapted „Famous Faces“-According to US researchers, dementia testing should be easier to detect in people under the age of 65 years. So far, such facial tests have been used in the diagnosis of dementia, by adapting the selected celebrities, the NUFFACE test has now been adapted to today's 40- to 65-year-olds, said the Northwestern University in their latest press release.

Face test helps to detect early forms of dementia
The facial test also makes it possible to distinguish between simply recognizing the faces and naming the famous personalities, which could help, „to determine the exact type of cognitive impairment of a person“, explained the lead author of the study and PhD student in neuropsychology at Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's´s Disease Center of Northwestern University, Tamar Gefen. Under the direction of senior author Professor Emily Rogalski, Gefen has adapted the facial test for the younger generation of dementia patients. „The famous faces for this study were specifically chosen for their relevance to people under the age of 65, so the test may be useful for diagnosing dementia in younger people“, stressed Rogalski. Especially for the so-called Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), which brings with it as a very rare and early form of dementia above all problems in communication or the spoken language, the test is well suited.

Dementia test with Kennedy, Princess Diana and Elvis Presley
As part of their study, the US researchers examined the predictive power of the facial test on 30 patients with primary progressive aphasia and 27 persons without dementia. The average age of the subjects was 62 years. As part of the test, the study participants were to recognize 20 black-and-white images of familiar faces, including John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, Martin Luther King Jr., and Elvis Presley. For every face the subjects could name, they earned points. They did not remember the name, but they could rewrite the person with at least two relevant details, they also got points. Accompanying the activities in the brain of the subjects were observed by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Difficulties in recognizing faces an indication of dementia
The US scientists found that individuals with primary progressive aphasia in the „Famous Faces“-Test significantly worse sections than the subjects of the control group. They recognized only 76 percent of the famous people and could only call the name 46 percent, while the healthy study participants recognized 97 percent of the famous people and named 93 percent of them by name. The accompanying MRI examination showed, „that people who had difficulty assigning names to their faces were more likely to show a loss of brain tissue in the left temporal lobes of the brain“ and „those with difficulty recognizing the faces had tissue loss in the left and right temporal lobes“, so the message of Northwestern University.

Overall, the test provides a good basis for the early diagnosis of dementia or a primary progressive aphasia, according to the researchers. „In addition to the practical value in identifying people with early-stage dementia, this test can also help us understand how remembering in the brain works and retrieves knowledge of words and objects“, explained Tamar Gefen. (Fp)

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Picture credits: Angela Parszyk