A plop of peanut butter on the end of a ruler could be the key to an early Alzheimer's diagnosis, claims new research coming out of the University of Florida.
Graduate student Jennifer Stamps reported her group's findings from a small study in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
The university reported that she came up with the idea of using peanut butter to test the smell sensitivity after noticing that patients were not tested for sense of smell. The ability to smell is associated with the first cranial nerve, often one of the first nerves affected in cognitive decline.
But why peanut butter? Stamps said it's a "pure odorant" that is only detected by the olfactory nerve, and peanut butter is easy to get.
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