Dementia News and Research

Latest Dementia News and Research

New PET imaging approach may enable early CTE diagnosis

A first-in-class PET imaging approach can accurately detect a biomarker for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a devastating neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated head impact.

31 May 2026

Sociological shifts change expectations and behaviors of modern patients

Whereas patients in the past were expected to be patient, grateful, passive and docile - many of today's patients are assertive, demanding, impatient and insistent. So, what has happened?

29 May 2026

Scientists uncover shared gene signatures that reveal how mammals age

Researchers mapped more than 11,000 transcriptomes across mice, rats, macaques, and humans, revealing conserved molecular signatures of aging and mortality across tissues, species, and cell types. The study developed interpretable transcriptomic clocks that track age, mortality-related molecular change, chronic disease signals and responses to lifespan-altering interventions.

29 May 2026

Advanced tau imaging improves early Alzheimer’s disease detection accuracy

A new brain imaging test can detect a key hallmark of Alzheimer's disease before symptoms appear and earlier than the method currently used in clinical practice in the United States and Europe, report University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers today in The Lancet.

28 May 2026

Blood biomarkers may detect Alzheimer’s risk before symptoms appear

For the first time, researchers found blood biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease that correlated with minor cognitive differences in midlife adults who did not have dementia.

28 May 2026

LSU study examines how restrained sitting limits early childhood movement

Researchers at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in collaboration with investigators from 32 countries participating in the SUNRISE International Study, have published new findings examining how restrained sitting contributes to daily movement patterns in early childhood.

28 May 2026

Vitamin deficiencies may contribute to chronic fatigue and low motivation

With less time and more work, chronic fatigue has become a moniker of modern society. However, this not only reduces the quality of life but also constitutes as a social issue that affects work efficiency and leads to accidents.

28 May 2026

Study finds lower Alzheimer’s pathology in Black and Hispanic patients

A large multisite study of older people with cognitive impairment finds that Black and Hispanic people, while known to be far more apt to have dementia, are significantly less apt than other racial and ethnic groups to show Alzheimer's pathology on brain scans.

27 May 2026

New study reveals barriers to Medicaid-funded home care access

Obtaining home care for older adults with Medicaid can be a complex, multi-step process marked by delays and uncertainty, often resulting in long wait times, according to a new Weill Cornell Medicine study.

26 May 2026

Gum disease pathogen may drive Alzheimer’s through microglial ferroptosis pathway

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia, is projected to affect 152 million individuals worldwide by 2050; yet its pathogenesis remains poorly understood and effective treatments are lacking.

24 May 2026

University of Ottawa study links heart attacks with brain damage

A new study led by a team from the University of Ottawa takes a major step forward in understanding how a heart attack can dramatically reshape brain function and trigger neurological effects, from depression and anxiety to different types of cognitive decline.

22 May 2026

Disrupted sleep rhythms may increase dementia risk through impaired waste clearance

Why are conditions such as chronic stress, depression, cardiovascular disease, fragmented sleep, and aging all associated with a higher risk of dementia? In a new review piece in Science, University of Rochester Medicine neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc, proposes that many of these seemingly different conditions may converge on the same biological problem: disruption of a sleep-dependent brain rhythm that helps clear waste from the brain.

22 May 2026

Uneven grey matter loss serves as a powerful new biomarker for early neurodegeneration

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Alzheimer's disease begins to weave a web in the brain and remodel neuronal tissue 15 to 20 years before the first symptoms appear. From the time this happens, however, until the disease is diagnosed and, later, enters an advanced phase, it progresses along a continuum of changes to the brain.

21 May 2026

Smoking cessation may reduce dementia risk for people who avoid major weight gain

Quitting smoking may be associated with a lowered risk of dementia, especially for people who avoid major weight gain after quitting, according to a study published May 20, 2026, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

20 May 2026

Poor sleep may flag early Alzheimer’s risk in genetically vulnerable older women

Poorer subjective sleep quality was linked to worse visual memory and greater limbic tau burden in older women with higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The findings suggest sleep complaints may help identify women at elevated risk for early AD-related brain and cognitive changes, but larger longitudinal studies are needed.

20 May 2026

New AI framework maps systemic obesity damage at cellular resolution

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich, the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich (LMU) and collaborating institutions have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) framework that maps disease-related changes throughout the entire mouse body at cellular resolution.

20 May 2026

Early electronic advance directives reduce burdensome end-of-life care

Advance directives document patient preferences for future care, including end-of-life. An analysis in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that older patients with an advance directive that had been uploaded into the electronic health record at least six months before death were 25% less likely to experience potentially burdensome end-of-life care (19.9% versus 26.8%) and 31% less likely to have died in the hospital (23.2% versus 32.1%).

20 May 2026