“Breakthrough Ear EEG Device Detects Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Early: PANDA Study”

2023-05-16 10:36:15

Dementia (Alzheimer’s is the most common form ed.) and Parkinson’s are advancing rapidly in an aging world. Based on population studies, there will be an estimated 290,000 people in the Netherlands in 2021 with dementia and approximately 50,000 with Parkinson’s. An early diagnosis is important and the special ear EEG device can help in a groundbreaking way. In the Netherlands, too, research is being done into how the diagnosis of ‘dementia’ can be made at an earlier stage. For example, researchers at UMC Utrecht have succeeded in predicting possible future cognitive problems with the help of proprietary software and brain scans.

Bring diagnosis forward 10-15 years

The new research with the ear EEG device is groundbreaking because the device can recognize Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia and Parkinson’s, at an early stage in a hardly burdensome manner. Rigshospitalet, Aarhus University and T&W Engineering collaborate on these EEG in-ear headphones.

Early detection is important because it opens up more treatment options. A good example is the use of dementia inhibitors medication such as rivastigmine. These types of drugs do not cure the disease, but can significantly slow down the disease. However, early diagnosis is essential, because the sooner you start taking medication, the better the medicines can slow down the disease process.

ear EEG not burdensome

The new smart device measures the brain’s electrical activity and sleep patterns in the ears, which could provide clues to early signs of these conditions. With the project, the researchers hope to diagnose patients with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s sooner than with current methods.

Professor Preben Kidmose, head from the Center for Ear EEG at Aarhus University explains the possibilities on the university’s website: “Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are diseases that develop over many years. They are usually only discovered once people develop, for example, memory-related problems, sleep disorders or disorders in the musculoskeletal system. The diagnosis is generally made so late that only the symptoms can be treated. In this project we will try to identify the signals of the two diseases 10-15 years before the first problems appear. If that works out, more and better treatment options will be possible!”

PANDA project goes for ear EEG

Rigshospitalet, Aarhus University and T&W Engineering are jointly conducting this research into the ear EEG device. The device is being developed as part of the so-called PANDA project, which stands for ‘Progression Assessment in Neurodegenerative Disorders of Aging’ and is a four-year project with a total budget of 3.38 million euros. Central to the project is the development of a simple home measurement for early detection and monitoring of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

The aim is to investigate whether the technology can be used to screen patients for the two serious brain diseases. That seems promising, because recent research shows that a person’s sleep pattern can indicate early signs of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The possibilities of this smart form of home measurement are therefore probably not limited to the two conditions mentioned. The smart in-ear headphones enable discreet and convenient unassisted brain sensing, opening up a host of new long-term EEG analyses. Examples include sleep analysis, epilepsy, brain-computer interfaces, stress, depression and neurological disorders.