Computer model of spread of dementia can predict future disease patterns years before they occur in a patient
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 17:30
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have developed a computer program that has tracked the manner in which different forms of dementia spread within a human brain. They say their mathematical model can be used to predict where and approximately when an individual patient's brain will suffer from the spread, neuron to neuron, of "prion-like" toxic proteins -- a process they say underlies all forms of dementia.