Sea Quest Hero: Online Game to Improve Study of Dementia: Researchers Found Vital Development
The game "Sea Quest Hero" was developed by the Alzheimer's Research UK and Deutsche Telekom to help improve the research of dementia. The game was all about following an elderly former sea explorer who lost his memories and has helped the researchers lead a massive international study with important preliminary information that leads to human orientation skills.
The game was launched in May 2016 and has able to generate 9,400 years worth of data to help in creating a global benchmark for the navigational process of the human brain and how they differ between old and young, men and women. According to Business Insider, the game has been played for over 2.4 million.
According to the report, "Sea Quest Hero" has a potential on detecting and is useful in diagnosing dementia at an early stage. According to the Word Health Organization (WHO), the numbers of having dementia may anticipate rising to over 75.6 million in the year 2030. Last year, patients who have dementia was roughly around 47.5 million and counting as it has been increasing rapidly as the life expectancy increases.
According to the scientist, the number of having dementia is projected to triple in the year 2050 and it is the leading condition that is in the developed countries that causing the dependency and disability of a man and an overtake heart disease as the main lead reason of death in people having this condition.
As per Reuters, a neurologist at Britain's College of London, Hugo Spiers says that the study of the game "Sea Quest Hero" was unprecedented both in accuracy and scale. He stated, "The findings in the game are yielding," continued "it has an enormous potential to support the vital development in dementia research."
The benchmark that has been established by the initial data gathered from "Sea Quest Hero", makes it a lot easier now for researchers finding out the earliest changes in spatial navigation or cues to look dementia patients long before the patient's display symptoms of general memory loss. The report claimed that the data can also be used future trials to assess the effectiveness of any possible treatment.