Abstract

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is an important cause of dementia in older people. Although it is the second most common degenerative dementia in older people, it is currently under-studied compared with many other forms of dementia, and very little is known about its underlying neurobiology. Visual hallucinations is one of main symptoms in DLB affecting over 80% people. Using state-of-the-art brain scan techniques (e.g. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, multi-tracers positron emission tomography and super sensitive magnetetoencephalography), we have measured several important brain chemicals, brain waves, and connections between different parts of the brain to detect changes in DLB compared with similar aged healthy controls and other dementing disease such as Alzheimer’s. In my lab, we are developing computational models of hallucination in DLB in order to describe abnormalities found in neural activity and different chemicals in the brain. The model can predict and show what may happen in the brain during hallucinations on computers. They can also be used to identify potential therapeutic targets, and to validate effects of different drug treatments on the symptomology of DLB . Developing new drug treatments by computationally driven approaches is safer, faster and cheaper by making much of the trial-and-error processes virtual before they are tested on humans.