Magnetic resonance images are revolutionizing dementia diagnosis because of the use of computers for their analysis. The brain degeneration that causes failure of memory can be detected before symptoms arise, which raises new perspectives for treatment.

Richard Frackowiak is head of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at UNIL–CHUV. His interest is in human brain structure and function relationships in health and disease. He has won the Ipsen, Wilhelm Feldberg and Klaus Joachim Zulch prizes. Formerly Foundation Professor of Cognitive Neurology at University College London, Director of the Department of Cognitive Studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris and Vice-Provost of UCL., he founded the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience (FIL) in 1994. MA and MD Cambridge, DSc London University, he has an honorary doctorate from Liege University and is a Fellow of the Academies of Medical Sciences of the UK, France, Belgium and Europe and a foreign associate of the Institute of Medicine USA. He is also scientific advisor to the Director-General of Inserm.