My mom, her dad and my father's mother all had Alzheimers/dementia...and I have been fully aware of the possibility in my future.
The future is here. The drugs that we have now require weekly intravenous infusion and only delay progression for a couple months. However, there is one therapeutic being developed my MIT's Neurology lab and a spin off company, Cognito, that does sound promising that involves LEDs (in goggles) and sound flickering at 40hz.
Could you recommend one of your boards that would be suitable. THe LEDs would be mounted in goggles and wire connected to the board. On the board I would want would be the ability to dim the LEDs and the ability to manually switch the light flicker (and sound) in each goggle half to flash in sync (@ 40hz) or alternatively between right and left goggle.
There are many cards capable of doing what you need.
But one of the small ones is the ESP8266 12E/F (small in size but large in processing capacity).
I would have to study your project in more detail, but perhaps the Atinny85 mm is capable of doing so as well.
"These analyses are considered descriptive, exploratory assessments since prespecified primary outcome measure was not met, and multiple comparison was not carried out."
This means they didn't actually see the results they wanted regarding efficacy and the brain imaging results showed no impact on the brain regions that degenerate in alzheimers disease. Furthermore they used less stringent statistical criteria for the outcomes they report as significant. The author's are open and honest about these limitations but that may get lost in the marketing.
All that being said the results may change in larger ongoing trials. And by all means, start playing around with Arduinos and microcontrollers in the meantime. However, you should perhaps temper your expectations regarding the impact this may have on the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
If you still feel super passionate about their work, get in contact with them and see if you can sign up to any of their research studies.
the2ndtierney:
Thanks - I will read the papers more closely. And yes, I did apply for a study candidacy but couldn't make the interview in Cambridge as I was teaching high school science in San Francisco...but now that I am retired I will reapply.
And I am going to proceed with my project as I have nothing to lose.
Uno and Mega are ideal if you have found a "shield" that contains all or most of the circuit you need, ready made. A shield is a ready-made PCB that is the same shape and size of an Uno and is designed to plug on top of the Uno or Mega.
If you can't find a shield that contains the circuit you want, you will need an alternative way to build one, starting with a prototype. The usual way to build prototypes and one-off circuits is to use a solderless breadboard, or one of the various types of proto-board like stripboard for example. These support you to try out different circuits, starting simple and building up, correcting your mistakes as you learn.
For breadboard and protoboard use, a classic Nano 3 is a good choice for a beginner. It plugs into the breadboard or can be soldered onto the protoboard to make a neat, robust and manageable circuit.
