The present invention provides non-invasive methods for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease in a living human subject. One method employs a non-invasive automated apparatus which can continuously monitor pupil diameter size over time; repetitively measure pupil diameter size over time for a pre-chosen duration ranging from about less than 1 second to about 5 minutes; and cumulatively record size information as it is obtained over time. A second method employs an apparatus which can repetitively measure pupil constriction velocity for a pre-chosen duration both before and after stimulation by visible light. Both methods require the administration of at least one neural transmitter mediator to a targeted eye of the living subject in an amount insufficient to cause marked changes in pupil diameter size over time in a person who is not afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. The marked hypersensitivity of an Alzheimer's dementia patient to the administered neural transmitter mediator serves as the means for identifying individuals afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/532,319, filed Sep. 22, 1995 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,369, which is a continuation of International Application PCT/US95/09389, filed Jul. 24, 1995, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/279,795, filed Jul. 25, 1994 (now abandoned), and U.S. application Ser. No. 08/447,630, filed May 23, 1995 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,872).
A brain function examining apparatus and others for performing an examination of a brain function by detecting a pupillary size of a subject's pupil are provided. The brain function examining apparatus includes a light source for illuminating the pupil, a pupillary detector for detecting the pupillary size, an index calculator for calculating, based on the pupillary size detected by the pupillary detector, a subject index indicative of a characteristic of the pupil, a database for storing a base index indicative of a characteristic of the pupil that can be used as reference, and an output unit for outputting the subject index, calculated by the index calculator, and the base index stored in the database.
An evaluation of affective brain function and, more particularly, to the monitoring of such function as an indication of the reception of visual stimulus. Such evaluation primarily involves analyzing dilation responses as a measure of whether the visual stimulus evokes a positive or negative affective response.
The present invention is a system and method that produces features and indices that indicate the presence or absence of a disease or condition, or of the progression of a disease or condition. The system and method of the present invention also produce features and indices that predict responsiveness to medication from a premedication baseline. The system and method of the present invention further incorporates a testing methodology to improve the performance characteristics of the features or indices. To obtain such features and indices, time domain, power spectrum, bispectrum and higher order spectrum values are derived from biopotential signals taken from the subject being tested.
A method of treating visual system disease is disclosed. One embodiment comprises the steps of (a) exposing a component of a patient's visual system to light treatment, wherein the light treatment is characterized by wavelength of between 630-1000 nm and power intensity between 10-90 mW/cm.sup.2 for a time of 1-3 minutes, and (b) observing restoration of visual system function.
A method for determining mental alertness level by monitoring point of gaze, pupillary movement, pupillary response, and other parameters in a subject performing a task, collecting the data in a database, analyzing the data in the database, and assigning the subject to a score indicating the subject's particular mental alertness level in real time.
