Three-minute brainwave test could spot Alzheimer’s risk years earlier

Early clues of Alzheimer’s may show up with a quick, no-effort brainwave check called Fastball EEG. Developed at the University of Bath with colleagues at the University of Bristol, this three-minute test tracks your brain’s electrical response while you look at a rapid stream of pictures. It needs no spoken answers, no tricky instructions, and no memory quiz. You simply watch images flash. The system reads your brain’s recognition signal in real time.

“We’re missing the first 10 to 20 years of Alzheimer’s with current diagnostic tools. Fastball offers a way to change that – detecting memory decline far earlier and more objectively, using a quick and passive test.” said study lead Dr George Stothart from Bath’s Department of Psychology.

The new study, published in Brain Communications, shows Fastball can reliably find memory problems tied to Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a condition that often precedes Alzheimer’s. The team also proved you can run the test at home with portable gear, not just in the clinic. That shift could widen access, cut costs, and speed up referrals.

New Alzheimer’s drugs—donanemab and lecanemab—work best in the earliest disease stage. Yet many people never get a timely diagnosis. In England, estimates suggest roughly one in three people living with dementia do not have a formal diagnosis, which slows access to treatment and support. If you can flag memory changes sooner and with less hassle, you can reach therapy earlier and plan with your family.

MCI sits between typical aging and dementia. It comes in two broad types. In amnestic MCI (aMCI), memory loss leads the picture. In non-amnestic MCI (naMCI), attention or visuospatial skills slip, while memory looks near normal. People with aMCI convert to Alzheimer’s more often and more quickly than those with naMCI. That makes aMCI a key group for early testing.

Fastball uses fast periodic visual stimulation, a method from cognitive neuroscience. You see four standard images, then a fifth “oddball” image, repeating at a steady rhythm. Each image appears for only 166 milliseconds, with equal brief gaps. Your visual system locks onto that rhythm. When the oddball appears, your brain gives a recognition “pop” at a second, lower frequency. Electrodes on your scalp pick up both rhythms.

Because you don’t need to speak, write, or remember lists, the test avoids language barriers, test anxiety, and education bias. That makes the measure more inclusive. It also means you can complete it even if you dislike tests. The whole session runs about 173 seconds.

Researchers tested 53 MCI patients and 54 healthy older adults. Within the MCI group, they compared aMCI and naMCI. They also repeated testing after one year to see what changed.

Researchers made three key findings:

Dr Stothart’s team also checked attention with a psychomotor vigilance task. Both MCI groups had more lapses than healthy peers. Yet aMCI did not differ from naMCI on that attention metric. That supports the idea that Fastball isolates memory recognition rather than general alertness.

Clinics often use pencil-and-paper tests, which depend on language and education. Brain scans and spinal fluid measures can show amyloid and tau changes, but access is limited, procedures can be invasive, and costs run high. Blood tests for dementia biomarkers are improving and may scale widely soon. Still, you also need a functional readout of how the brain works.

EEG fills that gap. It measures brain activity directly. Fastball boosts practicality by keeping recording short, improving signal quality with rhythmic stimulation, and requiring little training to run. The researchers used an eight-channel wearable EEG set with standard electrode sites. Most people tolerated the tasks well and completed the protocol. In healthy participants, Fastball scores showed moderate to good test-retest reliability over a year, even outperforming a common memory subscale on stability.

The team proposes Fastball taps familiarity—that fast sense that something has been seen before—linked to the perirhinal cortex. That region shows early changes in Alzheimer’s. If you can measure familiarity cleanly, you can track one of the first failing processes. In the study, Fastball’s neural signal predicted composite memory scores but not attention scores, strengthening the case for specificity to memory.

“There’s an urgent need for accurate, practical tools to diagnose Alzheimer’s at scale. Fastball is cheap, portable, and works in real-world settings.” Dr Stothart said.

BRACE, a dementia research charity that funded parts of this work, sees the test expanding access. “Fastball is an incredible tool that could offer anyone who, for whatever reason, cannot access a dementia diagnosis in a clinical setting,” said Chris Wiliams, CEO of BRACE Dementia Research. “BRACE has been supporting the development of Fastball for several years, and we are excited to see what Dr Stothart’s team will achieve over the next few years with ongoing support from the charity.”

The study did not include PET scans or spinal fluid markers, so the team could not label each MCI participant by underlying biology. Long-term follow-up will help confirm whether early Fastball scores predict who converts to Alzheimer’s. Future work should also pair Fastball with blood-based biomarker panels. That combination—structure from blood or imaging plus function from EEG—could sharpen diagnosis and staging.

Because Fastball runs passively, you could see it used in GP offices, memory clinics, and even in your living room. It might become part of routine checkups, like an electrocardiogram for the brain. You would watch pictures. The device would record. Clinicians would review objective scores over time, not just brief snapshots.

Fastball does not replace a full clinical exam. It adds a fast, low-cost window on recognition memory. Used with other tools, it can help you and your clinician make earlier, better-informed choices. As disease-modifying drugs expand, that time advantage matters more each year.

Note: The article above provided above by The Brighter Side of News.

Like these kind of feel good stories? Get The Brighter Side of News' newsletter.