PET study tests how a video game points out possible Alzheimer’s disease

Akili Interactive Labs and Pfizer are partnering to evaluate patients’ risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by following their performance while playing a specialized video game, Akili announced Jan. 9.

The game, “Project EVO,” was developed by Akili in order to quantify how players cope with cognitive interference such as interruptions and distractions and how that affects their attention, focus and ability to make decisions and plan. Lower performance in these areas is an indicator of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as psychiatric disorders like depression, autism and ADHD.  

"A tool that enables cognitive monitoring for the selection and assessment of clinical trial patients has the potential to be an important advance in Alzheimer's research and beyond,” said Michael Ehlers, senior vice president and chief scientific officer of neuroscience at Pfizer, in a release.

Pfizer is set to conduct a clinical trial that will differentiate elderly subjects with mild cognitive impairment from those with no sign of disease using PET and validate the results of video game assessment. About 100 subjects are expected to participate in the study. Patients’ performances will be evaluated based on one month of playing the game.