Digital Tools for Early Detection

Revolutionizing Alzheimer’s Care

The USC Center for Personalized Brain Health applies the latest digital tools to spur interdisciplinary Alzheimer’s disease research. One avenue of investigation aims at early detection and prevention.

By the time a patient shows the cognitive symptoms that lead to an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, years of damage have taken their toll. Injury to the brain may be irreversible by then.

But what if doctors could detect Alzheimer’s disease while there is time to do something about it? We are exploring how to turn that “what if” into a reality.

To benefit carriers of the APOE ε4 gene variant, who are at higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease, the USC Center for Personalized Brain Health is focusing on changes that occur in their brains a decade or more before the usual age when dementia symptoms arise. Such changes particularly stress the entorhinal cortex—akin to the human version of GPS—which is crucial for successful navigation. It is likely that spatial navigation errors in APOE ε4 carriers 50 years or older may predict the later development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Identifying APOE ε4 carriers whose ‘internal GPS’—or entorhinal cortex—is deteriorating might thus make it possible to detect Alzheimer’s risk early. The field of digital technologies is expanding and allows more accurate assessment of physical activity, dietary habits, and sleep patterns.

The USC Center for Personalized Brain Health brings together investigators from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering in the quest for Alzheimer’s early detection. We are developing a system combining GPS sensors and artificial intelligence to measure changes in navigational skills among volunteers who carry the APOE ε4 gene variant.

This science may be the first step in interventions to prevent Alzheimer’s disease — the single best form of treatment.