A system for using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for
detecting symptoms indicative of Alzheimer's disease, diagnosing
Alzheimer's disease and gauging the efficacy of medications used in
treating Alzheimer's disease. The system includes steps involving
activating a selected region of the brain which may be affected by
Alzheimer's disease using an identity recognition type task, concurrently
acquiring task-active MRI data responsive to the task, comparing the
patient's task-active MRI data to reference data derived from a database
of task-active data from healthy individuals and detecting whether the
patient has symptoms related to Alzheimer's disease. The severity of the
patient's symptoms and the staging of the disease may also be determined.
Also, a medication may be administered to the patient and the efficacy of
the medication may be gauged based on the severity of the patient's
symptoms.