Mental Health

Soon You Can Beat Alzheimer's With the Click of a Mouse

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Nov 25, 2014 09:38 AM EST

If you have got 10 minutes free with an Internet connection, you might be able to help researchers answer pressing questions about Alzheimer's disease. 

Around 5 million Americans are suffering from Alzheimer's, yet the exact cause is unknown. 

The new project aims to leverage the power of the Internet to collect information in hope that it will help understand the disease better. 

The project dubbed MindCrowd is aiming to engage an unprecedented 1 million people across the globe in online memory testing. The testing can be attended by anyone, which takes 10 minute to complete on the project website. 

 "We're pretty excited about this. We don't know of anybody else who's done anything like this or been able to get this many people participating in a research study," said one of the lead developers Professors Elizabeth Glisky, head of the UA psychology department in the press release.

The MindCrowd website was created with the average Internet user in mind. Anyone can take the test from the comfort of home, and they will instantly see their results and how they stack up against others, the press release added.

"We designed our study site from a marketing and user experience perspective, very much as if we were a business asking our customers to 'do something,' instead of designing it to look and feel like what it really is, a scientific study run by scientists who work in academia," said MindCrowd principal investigator Matt Huentelman, an associate professor in TGen's Neurogenomics Division. "That really is part of our success, I believe-the user experience was foremost in our mind because that would drive participation."

MindCrowd website

© 2023 Counsel & Heal All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics