On 7 May, researchers reported that assessment of navigational behaviour measured by a virtual computer game may help identify people who are at high genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Sea Hero Quest app is a spatial navigation video game dedicated to helping global research into dementia. In Sea Hero Quest, players have to navigate and control a virtual boat.
Scientists analysed data from over 27.000 players between 50 to 75 years old in the United Kingdom to create a global benchmark to know how people navigated the game. They also analysed results of 60 participants who had undergone genetic testing. Then, they compared how people with the APOE4 gene (most common genetic risk factor for AD) navigated the game compared to people without this gene.
In the published study, researchers showed that people who are genetically at risk of developing AD can be reliably distinguished from those who are at low-risk using spatial navigation. People with a high genetic risk, the ApoE4 carriers, performed worse on spatial navigation tasks.