Portable Light-Based Brain Monitor Improves Dementia Diagnosis

Early and accurate diagnosis of dementia remains a significant challenge, with existing tools such as MRI and PET scans being costly, limited in accessibility, and impractical for repeated use. Standard imaging provides valuable information on brain structure and function, but is not suited for frequent community-based monitoring. Researchers have now demonstrated a portable, light-based approach that can capture metabolic changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease, showing potential for simpler and more accessible testing.

A research team from the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK), the University of Sheffield (Sheffield, UK), and collaborators has developed a compact, noninvasive neuromonitoring device using broadband near-infrared spectroscopy (bNIRS). Unlike conventional spectroscopy, which tracks hemoglobin changes, this method measures the oxidation state of cytochrome c oxidase (oxCCO), a mitochondrial enzyme tied to cellular energy production. Since oxCCO activity decreases in Alzheimer’s disease, monitoring this biomarker provides a new window into disease detection and progression.

The researchers enrolled three groups: five healthy controls, seven with mild cognitive impairment, and seven with early Alzheimer’s dementia. Participants were exposed to visual stimulation while the device monitored blood oxygen and oxCCO responses from the visual cortex. The findings, reported in the Journal of Biomedical Optics, showed that features such as response amplitude and peak delay varied between groups, and statistical modeling revealed a strong correlation with cognitive performance when oxCCO measures were included (r = 0.902).

This pilot study highlights the potential of portable bNIRS as a practical and patient-friendly tool for dementia diagnosis and monitoring. Because the system can be used in homes, it could enable more frequent assessments, helping track disease progression or evaluate treatment responses. Future work will expand testing to larger cohorts, refine portability, and integrate the technology into broader diagnostic frameworks as a complement to standard imaging methods.

“Our work is the first to noninvasively measure oxCCO during functional tasks in people with dementia, using a wearable system,” wrote the study authors, suggesting that with further development, bNIRS could become part of the diagnostic toolkit for dementia, offering a low-cost, noninvasive, and patient-friendly complement to existing imaging methods.

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University of Cambridge
University of Sheffield