Frequently Asked Questions

Taking Part

1. How am I helping dementia research by taking part in Seeing Dementia?

By taking part you can help us to demonstrate how easy the visual rating scale is to apply and encourage more health care professionals to use it in the assessment of MRI brain scans in people with suspected dementia.

2. What will I learn if I take part in Seeing Dementia?

Seeing Dementia presents a unique opportunity for you to see first hand the how the disease processes associated with dementia affect the brain tissue. The images you will see represent a mix of different dementia disease processes including Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia and the normal healthy brain.

3. Who can take part in Seeing Dementia?

Anyone! The project is open to anyone registered with JoinDementiaResearch, including people with dementia, carers of people with dementia, healthy volunteers, their children and grandchildren! We think visual rating scales are so straightforward that anyone can apply them successfully.

4. Will my scores directly affect the diagnosis or care of people with dementia?

No. The images used in this project are from people who have now passed away but generously donated their brain to dementia research.

5. How many people can take part in Seeing Dementia?

As many as possible! The more people who take part in the project, the more certain we can be about the results.

About the Brain Scans

1. How many brain scans will I see?

The project is based on brain scans from 80 different people. All scans are presented twice to allow you to score the left and right side separately.

2. Do I need to score every brain scan?

No, but please do as many as you can!

3. Do I need to start from the first brain scan every time I log in?

No, we will remember where you left off at your last session and start you from there the next time you log in.

4. Why does Seeing Dementia only focus on a single brain region? Aren’t there other brain regions affected by dementia?

Seeing Dementia currently focuses on the hippocampus, which is affected by several dementia disease processes. Dementia eventually affects most areas of the brain and there are several other areas that are important to help make an accurate diagnosis. In the future we may extend the project to include visual rating scales that focus on some of these other regions.

Other

1. I’ve rated all the brain scan images. Will any more be made available?

If enough people take part we hope to make more images available based on different visual rating scales that focus on other regions of the brain.

2. How can I find out more about dementia?

The dementia charities provide many excellent sources of information:

3. I have more questions. Who should I contact?

Email us any questions on seeingdementia.jdr@nihr.ac.uk