Rethinking dementia through the lens of sensory changes

Memory problems have long been considered the primary characteristic of dementia, but a team of researchers now disputes this vision. They claim that changes in sensory perception – from vision to balance – can be equally important indicators that many care providers are currently missing.

According to experts, the current approaches to care and support of people with dementia need a revision, which are too relying on the assessment of memory functions, when the situation also affects taste, touch, balance, hearing or vision.

Professor Andrea Tales, professor of dementia research at Swansea University, Dr. Emma Richards of Public Health Wales (Formal Swansea University) and Professor Jan Kremláček, head of medical biophysics LFHK LFHK at Charles University, who are all experts in Dementia research, now supports substantial evidence for sensory and percepual changes for some people.

The experts postpone the amount of evidence to support this shift in the concept A new approach to dementia.

It is important that this book co -produces by people who live with dementia and sensory/perceptual challenges, facilitated by Aimee Day and Paula Brown. This group of co-researchers has navigated their own sensory and memory challenges to offer the context of human experience to the academic research.

The lesser known characteristics of dementia for some individuals include abnormalities such as changed visual and hearing perception, changes in hearing ability and noise processing, especially in noisy environments, reduced odor power and taste and tactile sensitivity problems. These changes in sensory and perceptual processing can be accompanied by the more generally recognized memory problems related to disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Emma Richards, who works with people who live with dementia, notes: “Many patients report that these sensory changes experience for years before they get a diagnosis, but these symptoms can be overlooked during standard cognitive assessments.

“Understanding and tackling these problems, and offering support earlier can be transforming, so that caregivers can offer vital emotional and social support patients needed on a possible confusing and painful time. In addition, understanding changes in a person can support a doctor in determining a dementia diagnosis.”

This emerging concept has important implications for clinical practice and care provision. The authors suggest that the inclusion of extensive sensory and perceptual tests in standard diagnostic, care, support and management protocols could make a better understanding of the experience of the person with dementia and their signs and symptoms possible, leads to a more targeted or personalized approaches, to retain their life.

“Broadening the diagnostic approach that goes beyond memory tests, increased the potential to identify dementia in pre -clinical stages when therapies and lifelines can be the most effective,” says Professor Jan Kremláček, who specializes in neurophysiological assessment.

Sensory and perceptual changes can be extremely harmful to daily functioning and the quality of life. People who live with dementia may experience increased difficulties by navigating well -known environments, reading and interpreting visual information, communication problems as a result of auditory processing problems and increased anxiety in complex sensory environments.

Suppliers of health care are encouraged to listen more carefully when patients report subtle changes in how they perceive and interact with their environment, because disruption of sensory function and perception of manifestations can be dementia.

This includes the development of standardized protocols for assessing the sensory and perceptual function, training for care providers to recognize non-memory symptoms, design environments and interventions that are suitable for sensory changes and include sensory assessments in routine cognitive screening.

“This is not about replacing memory assessment, but rather expanding our toolkit to improve our intake of the full, more holistic, spectrum of dementia-related changes,” explains Professor Tales.