Millions are sailing off on an adventure, the help Alzheimer's Research!

6 months ago a powerful story featured on bespoken. A heroic man and loving father was entering the 3rd act of life and had noticed a change in his ability to recall things. The cherished memories he’d gathered after a life spent exploring the seven seas were slowly fading one by one.

 

Alzheimer’s disease is a cruel illness that slowly strips away not just a person’s memories but also their ability to function independently. It affects millions of people around the world but the person described above is in fact a computer generated character in a video game app.

 

However Sea Hero Quest, as it is known, is far from being just a game. Created by a team of neuroscientists from University College London, Sea Hero Quest is a creative means to gather vital research data to help scientist understand how the human brain works and evolves depending on peoples’ age and sex. Over 2 million people worldwide have been contributing to one of the biggest research projects ever in this field.

 

But how does a game gather relevant data?

The game involves sailing a little boat across the ocean, re-tracing the journeys and reliving the memories of the hero’s father. In the process however there are multiple mental challenges which are presented as a fun obstacle but are also tracking the player’s ability to remember details and also the speed at which they react.

 

The goal was to get 100,000 people to use the app by the end of 2016. To date, over 2.4 million have played Sea Hero Quest.

 

 

So what has been discovered?

Well quite a lot actually, but if you’re wondering if dementia is getting a miracle cure on the back of this, you need to lower your expectation little. What the study is enabling scientists to do is get a much clearer idea of how age impacts the brain, how they can spot dementia before memory loss becomes apparent. Importantly it enables to better understand how dementia affects people who have it. Diagnosing the illness and treating it early on can have a massive impact on people and improve their chances of living independently, in their home, for longer.

Dr Hugo Spiers heads up the UCL Spatial Cognition Group which helped develop the app. Speaking at the San Diego Neuroscience 2016 conference this week Dr Spiers said “This study is thus now giving us the opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of millions of people living with dementia and those at risk of developing the disease in the future.”

 

Have you played Sea Hero Quest? Tell us about it in the comments section below…

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