VR game could expose Alzheimer’s risk before memory tests can

A VR game about navigating the sea can identify early Alzheimer’s risk cases where conventional tests cannot. The game has provided researchers with “1,700 years” of research material to date.

Sea Hero Quest is a game in which players have to navigate seas and lakes based on not too clear instructions and at the end indicate in which direction the starting point is. The game thus challenges the sense of direction and not just the memory. In the background, every half second, the gameplay metadata is bundled for the researchers to study. The game also asks for context how old players are, their gender and where they were born.

While random players are free to play the game at home, the data is compared to that of players in test rigs. Some 27,000 players, ages 50 to 75, were eventually matched against the subjects of the test. The researchers gathered sixty test subjects for the test, half of whom are believed to have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s. This is because they have a single copy of the apoe4 gene. About one in four people has it.

The findings were that players who have the gene performed worse on certain navigation tests. They took less efficient routes to their target. The significance of this finding is that this signal of possible Alzheimer’s occurs earlier than other signals; a deteriorating memory often only occurs in later stages, while these kinds of symptoms can appear as early as the age of nineteen. This is stated in an article in the scientific journal PNAS.

The game was developed as a collaboration between Deutsche Telekom, Alzheimer’s Research UK, the University College of London, the University of East Anglia and game studio Glitchers. The game was available as a regular smartphone game and as a VR game, but is now only available as a VR game for iOS, Android and Samsung Gear VR. In total, the game has been downloaded 4.3 million times.