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The Many Faces of Dementia – a free online course
Dr Tim Shakespeare, an Alzheimer’s Research UK Research Fellow at UCL (University College London) has led the creation of a new free online course called ‘The Many Faces of Dementia’ which will start in March. Tim describes why he created the course and what you’ll learn.
Why we created the course
There are two reasons that we were keen to create this course, and the first is to raise awareness of some of the less common forms of dementia. The second is that we think there are some really interesting and helpful insights that can be gained into dementia in general by understanding these less common forms of the condition.
Understanding less common forms of dementia
At the Dementia Research Centre at UCL, some of our research involves people with less common forms of dementia like frontotemporal dementia and posterior cortical atrophy. These often start with symptoms other than memory loss which might strike people as quite unusual for dementia. For example, people with posterior cortical atrophy have difficulty seeing where and what things are due to disruption in the parts of the back of the brain that process visual information; and people with the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia experience changes in behaviour and personality. People affected by these conditions and their families often find that people aren’t familiar with these symptoms, and this lack of understanding can add to the challenges of living with the condition. We created this course to raise awareness of four types of dementia that are less common than typical Alzheimer’s disease; these are familial Alzheimer’s disease, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and posterior cortical atrophy (PCA).
Insights into dementia from less common forms

The course includes videos with dementia experts exploring four less common forms of dementia.
What will you learn?

In the course you’ll learn about a number of research projects carried out at UCL, for example this project which aims to use a virtual reality setting to measure subtle changes in behaviour.
You’ll be able to understand how dementia affects people by watching video interviews, look deeper into the topics by reading articles, interact through activities and questions, and also learn from others on the course by taking part in the discussions that accompany each step.
Sign up now
Watch the trailer below, and join the course now by signing up at www.futurelearn.com/courses/faces-of-dementia.
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About the author

Tim Shakespeare
Tim Shakespeare is an Alzheimer's Research UK funded Research Fellow based at the Dementia Research Centre in Queen's Square, part of University College London. In 2013 he began a three-year study to help increase our understanding of posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a rare condition most often caused by Alzheimer’s disease, using advanced imaging techniques to study changes in the brain.
Interesting I work with patients with dementia would b intrested in more
Read a clip in New Scientist re: Drug Montelukast (Singulair) used for asthma as promising.
for ALZ. & Dementia etc. Will there likely be human trials in near future?
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Have wife with Dimentia probably vascular . Would like the 4 weeks dementia course .
Thanks and Kind regards
Con and Anne Micallef – New Zealand