Melbourne, July 18 (ANI): Australian scientists have discovered four peak stages of memory loss 20 years before the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
This data from the national Australian Imaging, Biomarker and Lifestyle Flagship study, has for the first time shown how long it takes for the development of Alzheimer's disease, the Courier Mail reported.
Florey Institute and their national consortium's researchers discovered that the plaque build-up in Alzheimer's sufferers' brain could be seen up to 20 years before memory loss symptoms appear.
However, it took about 10 years for these beta-amyloid plaque proteins to attain abnormal levels in the brain.
The researchers found that there was also a gradual death of the hippocampus about five years before the onset of the disease, with distinct memory losses occurring in 17 years, four and three years before a full-blown dementia strikes.
The research involved analysing brain scans and cognitive function tests of 206 participants in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing. (ANI)