A group of scientists from the NeurEYE research institute in Scotland is currently exploring a potential new method for early diagnosis of dementia through eye scanning using artificial intelligence. According to BBC News, the team will use retinal scans to train AI software to spot signs of dementia — the eyes give clues before other symptoms appear, so this is a Exciting method to act quickly to slow down this disease.

The research team now has access to almost a million images from ophthalmologists across Scotland, the largest dataset of its kind in the world. The AI ​​algorithm that NeurEYE is researching will carefully examine, analyze and evaluate the vascular structure in the eye to see if there are signs of dementia.

The advantage of artificial intelligence is that it can detect details or relationships between figures or characteristics that humans cannot easily see. For example, the images we view may have slight variations in resolution, down to the millimeter, that we cannot see with the naked eye.

Medically, dementia is a group of symptoms that affect memory, thinking, and social abilities that are severe enough to affect the daily life of the sufferer. It is not a specific disease, but a number of different diseases can also cause dementia. Although dementia in general involves memory loss, memory loss has different causes. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of progressive dementia in older adults. Depending on the cause, some dementia symptoms may be reversible.

“Eyes can reveal to us many surprising secrets”, said Baljean Dhillon, professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh and co-leader of the NeurEYE team. “The retina holds a wealth of information and is a biological measure of our brain health. Something as simple as retinal imaging can now be exploited to potentially predict future brain changes.”.

Medicine has not yet found a specific way to cure dementia caused by dementia, but the disease can be controlled better if detected early. By detecting the disease from eye scans before symptoms begin to appear, doctors can begin to treat patients much earlier and more effectively.

The researchers plan to complete a prototype of the technology later this year and roll it out more widely to opticians across the UK by 2026.