Mild Behavioral Impairment Linked to Alzheimer's Disease Plaques

A study from McGill University in Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association found that the presence and severity of mild behavioral impairment (MBI) in cognitively healthy individuals is strongly associated with amyloid plaques in the brain, reports Technology Networks . The researchers imaged the brains of nearly 100 cognitively healthy older individuals with varying MBI levels. MBI could potentially serve as a proxy for clinicians to diagnose Alzheimer's prior to the onset of symptoms using the Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist, a tool for codifying mental disorder symptoms attributable to diseases of the nervous system in pre-dementia populations. "This is an important study because it may help identify people who are at a higher risk of progression of Alzheimer's disease by employing a user-friendly clinical scale . . . already available worldwide," said McGill's Serge Gauthier.