Patients with Alzheimer’s disease can benefit from an earlier diagnosis that includes a long-term memory test combined with a brain scan, research has shown.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and colleagues in the U.S. studied long-term memory in young mice, some of which had very early stage Alzheimer’s and some who were healthy, and taught both groups of mice how to locate a hidden platform in a pool filled with water.

Brain scans revealed that the brain activity was normal in both groups of mice when there was no task involved and they were able to find their way to the platform not long after learning how to locate it.

A week later when the mice were tested again, the Alzheimer’s group had more difficulty remembering the route to the platform and scans also showed that their brain activity was decreased compared to the healthy mice.

“We recognize that tests with animals must be interpreted with caution, but the use of these genetic models in conjunction with appropriate testing is pointing at an important dimension of early diagnosis,” said lead author Professor Richard Morris, from the University of Edinburgh, in a statement.

According to the announcement, testing memory over a long period of time can show problems in the brain which cannot be detected with the current method for diagnosing the disease, “checks” for short-term forgetfulness. The researchers believe that short-term memory as a diagnosis may not reveal the true extent of memory loss.

“It is widely acknowledged that earlier intervention is needed to effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease, and better diagnostic tools are needed for that,” said Dr. Vassilios Beglopoulos, from the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, in a statement. “We believe that our approach could make a significant contribution.”

In March of last year, researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute in Australia used focused ultrasound on mice with Alzheimer’s to open the blood–brain barrier so waste removal cells could eliminate the amyloid plaque in their brain.

In 75 percent of the mice, their memories were fully restored with no damage to the surrounding tissue. The mice also showed an improvement in three tests: a maze, an object recognition test, and a memory test.