The ‘VEEG-Stim’ study is aimed at using technology to help us understand what causes the upsetting visual hallucinations in some dementias.

Aims of the Study

Visual hallucinations are a common and often upsetting symptom of the ‘Lewy body dementias’, which includes Dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease dementia.
However, very little is known about the cause of the hallucinations.

The aim of the VEEG-Stim study is to understand the cause of visual hallucinations. In the VEEG-Stim study, brain activity is recorded whilst the ‘vision’ part of the brain is stimulated with a magnetic device.

This magnetic stimulation usually causes someone to see a small flash of light, although sometimes it is either not noticed or experienced at all.
The study will help the research team to work out how people make visual images in their brains – both ‘real’ images and hallucinations.

Get Involved

This study requires people who are over 60 and have probable Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Parkinson’s Disease with Dementia or Parkinson’s Disease with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Researchers want to meet people who have, and have not suffered from hallucinations, to understand the differences between these groups.
The study is being run at the former General Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Healthy volunteers, and people with Charles Bonnet Syndrome are also encouraged to check their eligibility, by signing up to ‘Join dementia research’, available on the right of this page.