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Camera's pictures of a forgotten life
Scientists in Yorkshire hope a camera could help transform the lives of people suffering from conditions involving memory loss.
CHRIS Moulin has been wearing a SenseCam since he got up this morning, and it's now 11am. The little black box hanging around his neck, at mid-chest height, has captured all sorts of details of the day so far – his bedroom, study, journey to work, meeting colleagues in the corridor, filling his coffee cup and working at his computer.
The camera is rather like a plane's black box flight recorder – the device we only hear about when a disaster has struck, when it is crucial in piecing together details of what led up to the crash. The "disaster" involved in the use of the SenseCam is the loss of human memory – a facility that is tightly bound up with who we are and how we feel about ourselves.
If Dr Moulin ever had serious memory problems for whatever reason, he could use the images gathered by this little black gizmo to help to jog his memory and enable him, hopefully, to relive the events of today, possibly bringing back not only those experiences, but also the thoughts and feelings around them.
Imagine you suffer from a dementia like Alzheimer's disease, a progressive disorder which triggers loss of brain function. Your symptoms include confusion, speech problems and memory loss. Depending how far advanced the condition is, you might not recall ordinary or even very colourful, pleasurable and emotional experiences beyond a few days after they have happened.
There are currently 575,000 people in the UK with dementia, and that number is expected to rise to around a million by 2025. There is no cure for any of the 100-plus types of dementia, although there are drugs that may help in the earlier stages.
Many of these people already suffer serious loss of memory, and feel distressed, frustrated and angry at being lost for words sometimes, but also unable to recall who people are or things that happened to them in the recent past – although long-term memory may well be very good.
Scientists in Cambridge have done trials with the SenseCam as an aid to memory for people suffering memory impairment through a variety of neurological conditions.
The camera, which automatically takes photos through its fish-eye lens continuously throughout the day, or may be used for the duration of single events, can store up to 30,000 images. It works less during "quiet" periods, when the wearer isn't doing much, then detects movement or changes in light intensity and become more "active", taking a picture every 30 seconds.
Because it is a "passive" camera – one which records images without decision-making and intervention from its user – the SenseCam works in a way that's very similar to how the memory would naturally capture and store information.
The therapeutic use of the camera – now being explored also by neuropsychologists at Leeds University – lies in the wearer loading its thousands of images onto a computer and viewing them, usually at high speed, to bring back events as they were lived. A day's worth of material can be viewed in just a few minutes – your life literally flashing before your eyes.
In tests done by Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, among 20 people suffering conditions including Alzheimer's, researchers say results were not just encouraging but spectacular, with patients experiencing markedly improved memory.
However, 20 people is not a large group, research is ongoing and scientists around the world are now looking at myriad different aspects of how the SenseCam may help with memory problems before a commercial version can be developed.
It's thought that the camera's best use would be in recording specific significant events, ones which the user would particularly want to reminisce about and discuss later – rather than more ordinary daily activity.
In one case, after viewing images of such events every couple of days over two weeks, a 63-year-old woman not only recalled details of experiences she would normally "lose" after around five days, but after using the images for a couple of weeks continued to remember the event, even when they were not used. Her recall improved by 90 per cent.
Microsoft say the SenseCam "has huge potential as a memory aid," but more research and development are needed to figure out the best use of the camera, how far-reaching its effects might be, and exactly what is going on in the brain while the images are being viewed.
Neuropsychologists at Leeds University, world renowned specialists in the study of memory, have been given a slice of worldwide funding from Microsoft to bring their know-how to bear on the SenseCam project. Chris Moulin's particular area is autobiographical memory.
"We've been given freedom to look at the SenseCam from whatever angles we choose," he says. "The team in Cambridge were amazed by their findings, but more needs to be known. At the moment we are gathering information about its day-to-day use by a variety of people, from students to a women who has frontal lobe epilepsy.
"She had an episode while wearing it, and would normally just lose those moments, but the images she viewed later showed her what was going on around her during the period she can't recall."
Dr Moulin freely admits he approached the claims made for the 5cm by 5cm camera with scepticism. "I've had to completely rethink that view. Experience so far has been very positive, not only through personal use, but by making 'films' when other people use it.
"There is no aggressive commercial drive from Microsoft to get it on to the market quickly, either. They seem to be genuinely interested in carefully looking into all the possibilities.
Key to the effect the camera's "films" have had on patients so far is the fact that it is not only about pictures, says Dr Moulin. "(It) recovers memories of events, and also feelings and details not captured by the lens and displayed on the screen. It's not so much an aide-memoire as a powerful cue for unlocking memories that you might have thought were lost. For the memory researcher it is going to be an invaluable tool for rehabilitation and measurement.
"The most important memory is of their daily life and events. Until now it has been hard to measure, observe and rehabilitate these memories, because the psychologist can't follow the person around. The SenseCam can go anywhere with the wearer, and give them and clinicians a set of materials fit for rehabilitation and research."
Dr Moulin says the most marked personality change in dementia suffers is linked to loss of memory, and where a sufferer fears they will not remember events they may stop doing
things they enjoy – whether that's lunch at the country pub or a night class.
"If you had the means to help you recall the event and discuss it with your partner of friends, then you'd be more likely to continue going out and live life fully. "
Dr Moulin, Prof Conway and the rest of the team at Leeds are particularly interested in looking at how parts of the brain involved in the complex business of "personal memory" behave when the SenseCam images are being viewed.
To start off this area of research, they want to recruit a group of healthy people aged 60-plus to help with their work during the next six months.
Anyone interested in the SenseCam research should contact Kathryn Meeney on 0113 343 5708
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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