Dementia early warning sign that can be spotted in the way somebody speaks
dailyrecord.co.ukA new study has found that the way you talk could show if you're more likely to get dementia. This devastating illness occurs when your brain starts to decline, and it can cause problems with memory, behaviour, and even moving around.
It usually happens to older people, especially those over 65 years old. Sometimes it's hard to tell if someone has dementia because the signs can look like normal things that happen when we get older.
But now, scientists have spotted something that might help us know if someone has dementia just by listening to them talk. A study has found that how fast someone speaks might tell us about their brain health and their chances of developing the condition, the Express reports.Researchers from the University of Toronto and the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Canada found out that speaking speed might be a better clue about brain health than having trouble finding the right words, which is common as people get older.Dr Jed Meltzer, who helped with the study, said: "Our results indicate that changes in general talking speed may reflect changes in the brain."He also mentioned: "This suggests that talking speed should be tested as part of standard cognitive assessments to help clinicians detect cognitive decline faster and help older adults support their brain health as they age."The study was carried out with 125 healthy people aged between 18 and 90 who completed three different tasks, as published in the Ageing, Neuropsychology and Cognition journal.
For one of these tasks, each person had to do a picture-naming game where they answered questions about pictures while not paying attention to distracting words played through headphones.
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