Scottish data scientists are developing a digital tool that can predict a person’s risk of dementia from a simple eye test.

A team of scientists, clinical researchers and opticians have collected one million eye scans from opticians in Scotland – the largest dataset of its kind.

They will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze images taken of the retina at the back of the eye that can indicate brain health. As AI will help analyze the information, scientists may be able to detect symptoms of dementia even before symptoms are experienced.

Currently, dementia is the fastest growing brain disorder in the world. It includes a variety of conditions that cause a decline in thinking in the brain. Since it is age-related, once it occurs, it affects the person’s memory, thinking, behavior and motor control.

It becomes difficult for people to do everyday work. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia.

The NewEye research team, led by the University of Edinburgh, has teamed up with researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University to develop an algorithm that will enable an AI tool to assess the health of blood vessels in the eye in areas that indicate neurodegenerative diseases.

The data allows researchers to find patterns that may indicate a person’s risk of developing dementia, as well as give a broader picture of brain health.

“Advances in AI are revolutionizing disease prediction. By training algorithms on representative data, we can make early detection of dementia equitable and effective for all,” said Professor Miguel Bernabéu, co-author of NeuroIEEE, Ussher Institute. Chief.

This initiative is part of NeurEYE’s previous work in using AI to analyze brain scans for dementia risk.

“The eye can tell us much more than we thought. The retina contains a wealth of information and is a biological barometer of our brain’s health. We can look at the retina with simple, inexpensive equipment found in every high street in the UK. And beyond,” Baljan Dhillon, professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh and co-head of NewEY, told the BBC.

He said an image of the retina can now be used to potentially predict changes in the brain later in life.

David Steele, 65, shares how an earlier diagnosis of dementia could have helped his family. He said, “My mother’s Alzheimer’s disease remained hidden for ten years due to another diagnosis. If such predictive tools had existed, we could have got the right help much earlier.”