A UNIVERSITY of Bolton academic could revolutionise the diagnosis of dementia — by spotting the signs of the illness before symptoms begin to show.

Dr Richard Jagger, psychology lecturer and honorary research fellow, has won a research grant from the Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust.

The research will use electro-encephalogram (EEG) testing as an early diagnosis tool for the illness. The study is a six-month pilot scheme that uses EEG to track the brain activity of those taking part, to see whether there is a difference in activity between those with the early stages of Alzheimer’s and those ageing normally.

Dr Jagger said: “One of the fundamental flaws in dealing with Alzheimer’s patients is the lack of a diagnosis at the pre-clinical stage. There is a lot of care after memory loss has been diagnosed, but this study could help find a way to identify the illness much earlier, allowing for better diagnosis and treatment, including preventative drug therapies.”

EEG is the recording of the tiny electrical signals the brain’s cells produce when they send messages to each other.

This brain activity can be measured using a simple EEG test with small electrodes placed on to the scalp.

There are 800,000 people with dementia in the UK, a number that is set to rise to more than a million by 2021. One in three people over 65 will die with dementia.

Dr Jagger said symptomatic changes in electric brain signals happen 10 to 15 years before the tell-tale signs of memory loss and other significant dementia symptoms. This is because the brain can compensate to some degree for loss of function.

Memory loss is often seen as the first sign of dementia, but the compensatory changes in brain activity precede this by many years.

There are more than 17,000 people under 65 with dementia in the UK and it will cost the country £27 billion a year by 2018.

The conventional method for dementia testing is using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or positron emission tomography (PET) scan.

Dr Jagger said: “Expensive brain imaging techniques are the default test for detecting dementia.

“However, the benefits of EEG monitoring is the equipment is cost-effective, simple to use for trained medical practitioners and easily transportable. If this study is successful, the most important and key benefit will be early detection.”