When David Jones, M.D., was a student at Georgetown University School of Medicine, his grandmother developed Alzheimer’s disease. Like millions of families impacted by Alzheimer’s, Dr. Jones’ family was devastated. Her disease came with anosognosia, right-hemisphere brain damage that kept her from understanding that she had memory trouble.
It also affected her vision in an indirect way, making it difficult for her to process visual signals, yet she thought she was “fine.” “With cortical blindness, you can’t see, but you don’t know it,” Dr. Jones says. “None of her caregivers realized she couldn’t see. In my practice, I see that same sequence of events, leading from mild memory syndrome to denial to cortical blindness. It’s easy to predict how the brain will look in those cases.”
After receiving his M.D. in neurology years later and starting his research lab, Dr. Jones named a phenotype of the disease after his grandmother, the “MFB variant.” The name is used internally for teaching purposes.
For decades, Alzheimer’s and dementia have been the subjects of intense study. Today, Dr. Jones and researchers of his caliber can recognize brain changes as neurodegenerative conditions progress. By spotting patterns linked to a particular condition, healthcare professionals can identify dementia before symptoms become clinical, allowing early interventions.
