I will develop a first-of-its-kind screening test using electroencephalography (EEG) – a brainwave measurement device - that can accurately identify healthy people in the general population who have a high chance of developing dementia several years or decades later.

Currently, there is no single test that can accurately identify who in the general population is going to develop dementia before they experience memory and thinking problems. Therefore, it is unclear who would benefit most from disease slowing drugs and other early prevention strategies. There is an urgent need for a new test that can be used alone or alongside others (such as blood tests for Alzheimer's disease) to enable early and accurate prediction of long-term dementia risk.

My work during the past year showed that a single EEG characteristic (which reflects slowing of brainwaves) was linked to an increased chance of developing dementia 12 years later among 3,000 healthy older adults. I will now investigate whether other EEG characteristics (reflecting diverse aspects of brainwave function) may also predict future dementia. Then, using artificial intelligence, I will examine whether combining multiple EEG characteristics into a single measure (ERS-dementia) would improve the ability to predict future dementia among >4,000 middle-aged and older adults.

If successful, my work will introduce a new screening test (ERS-dementia) that will contribute to dementia prevention around the world. Furthermore, I will work with engineers to develop a cheap portable device that will enable ERS-dementia to be used by anyone in their own homes within the next five years.

Figure 1. Association between baseline EEG Theta/Alpha ratio (TAR) in cognitively unimpaired older adults and (a) incident dementia and (b) accelerated cognitive decline, over a 12-year follow up period. Association between annualised changes in TAR over 7 years, and (c) APOE4 carrier status, and (d) all-cause mortality risk (a proxy for biological ageing) during the subsequent 13 years. 3MS Score = Modified Mini Mental State Examination Score. * P<0·05, ⁎⁎ P<0·01, ⁎⁎⁎ P<0·001