Can you name these famous faces? If not, you could be developing early onset Alzheimer's disease

• Test detects the disease by asking people to name and identify famous people from a photograph
• People who struggle to put names to faces are more likely to have loss of brain tissue in left temporal lobe of the brain
• Those with trouble recognising faces have tissue loss on both sides of the temporal lobe

By Jenny Hope for the Daily Mail

Published: 05:22 EDT, 13 August 2013 | Updated: 21:04 EDT, 13 August 2013

It may look like a question from your local pub quiz – albeit a less than taxing one. But this face recognition test has a far more serious purpose.

Scientists believe how you perform in such a challenge could offer an early indicator of dementia in younger people.

They found that those who consistently struggled to recall the names of prominent people were more likely to have a form of the condition.

The test: Can you put a name to these faces? Those who struggled to remember famous faces could have dementia, according to researchers at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago

Researchers say the problem can be more than just a slip of memory, but a specific loss of brain function. Noting whether a subject fails to remember just the name, or does not recall the face at all, can also offer detail of function loss.

Although face-recognition tests have been used before, the latest has been updated in order to be relevant to the baby boomer generation. Out go James Cagney and Emperor Hirohito – in come Oprah Winfrey and Princess Diana.

In the study – which also used MRI scans to search for damaged brain tissue – 27 healthy people aged 40 to 65 recognised 97 per cent of the 20 faces they were shown, and named 93 per cent. But 30 people with primary progressive aphasia, a rare form of early-onset dementia, recognised only 79 per cent and named 46 per cent.

The disease mostly damages language skills and gets worse over time. Researcher Tamar Gefen, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said: ‘These tests also differentiate between recognising a face and actually naming it, which can help identify the specific type of cognitive impairment.

‘In addition to its practical value in helping us identify people with early dementia, this test may also help us understand how the brain works to remember and retrieve its knowledge of words and objects.’

The study, published in the  journal Neurology, gave a point to people who knew either the first or last name, with two points for both, or a point for a detail relevant to the person’s fame.

The researchers said people who had most trouble retrieving names for the faces were more likely to have lost brain tissue in the left temporal lobe, which is known to be important in verbal memory.

Those who couldn’t recognise the faces in the first place had tissue loss on both sides. Lead author Emily Rogalski said ‘The famous faces for this study were specifically chosen for their relevance to individuals under-65, so that the test may be useful for diagnosing dementia in younger individuals.

People with this type of dementia consistently forget names of famous people they once knew – it’s more than forgetting a name or two of a famous person.’ Dr Doug Brown, director of research and development at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: ‘Tests like this could help identify rarer forms of dementia which might otherwise be overlooked. More research is needed to see whether adaptations of this approach could have wider use.

‘There are 800,000 people living with dementia in the UK yet less than half receive a diagnosis.’