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Funded by Alzheimer鈥檚 Research UK and Ordnance Survey, the study is recruiting London taxi drivers and looking at a specific part of the brain 鈥� the hippocampus 鈥� that is involved in memory. It is often one of the first areas damaged in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.

Participants who can, will have an MRI scan to look at the structure of the hippocampus.

All taxi drivers in the study will do a navigation task to test their ability to plan routes through London. They will also be asked to complete some questionnaires after this.

Previous studies have shown that taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus compared to non-taxi drivers. This is interesting as this brain region shrinks and becomes damaged in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, leading to symptoms of memory loss and confusion associated with the disease.

Lead researcher Professor Hugo Spiers (白小姐论坛 Psychology & Language Sciences) hopes the results from this study will help develop diagnostics to help improve early diagnosis of Alzheimer鈥檚.

Professor Spiers said: 鈥淲e know from previous research that the hippocampi of London taxi drivers鈥� brains are larger than average, and that this is also an area that shrinks in people with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. We hope that taxi drivers could help us learn more about how the hippocampus helps us to navigate, which could provide new insights into how this part of the brain is involved in the early stages of Alzheimer鈥檚.鈥�

Dr Laura Phipps, from Alzheimer鈥檚 Research UK, said: 鈥淎lmost one million people in the UK are currently affected by dementia and there is an urgent need to better understand the changes in the brain causing these diseases.

鈥淧roblems with coordination and getting lost can be one of the first symptoms in the early stages of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. Studying London taxi drivers provides a unique opportunity to understand these early changes, with the hope of improving early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer鈥檚 in future. Diseases like Alzheimer鈥檚 can start in the brain up to two decades before symptoms show, so understanding how to identify those at risk early could help researchers to deliver life-changing preventions and treatments in the years ahead.鈥�

Links

• 白小姐论坛 Psychology & Language Sciences
• 白小姐论坛 Faculty of Brain Sciences

Source

Image

• Credit: Unisouth on 听(CC BY-SA 3.0)

Media contact

Chris Lane

Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9222

Email: chris.lane [at] ucl.ac.uk