Over 4.3 million people joined the quest and supported dementia research.

It has been a successful journey. Over 4.3 Million players played for over 117 years, providing scientists with data that would have taken traditional dementia research 176 centuries to collect. A monster big thank you to everyone who participated!

Largest study on spatial navigation capabilities

To help scientists diagnose dementia early and eventually find a treatment, we created Sea Hero Quest – a game with a difference. Spanning Mobile and Virtual Reality, Sea Hero Quest created the largest study on spatial navigation capabilities in history. The lack of spatial navigation capabilities is one of the first symptoms when suffering from dementia.

New research results based on collected data

Sea Hero Quest has been played for over 117 years in total by 4,3 million people.

Based on the collected data, first findings proved that spatial navigation capabilities begin to decline from age 19+ and that there are fundamental differences in the special navigation strategies between men and women. Men performed better than women, but the gender gap narrowed in countries with greater gender equality. A country's GDP also had a significant bearing with Nordic countries among the highest performing along with those in North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Sharing time to game for good

Upscaling dementia science with the possibilities of now. We, at Deutsche Telekom believe that Life is for sharing. That’s why we worked with our partners to help scientists in their fight against dementia. Harnessing the power of our networks, we reached out to create a global benchmark to improve early diagnosis of dementia and help cure one of the world’s most cruel diseases. Watch the animation and find out how our network fundamentally changed experimental reseach:

The science behind the game

One of the first symptoms of dementia is loss of navigational skills. Sea Hero Quest mobile provided enough data to help create the world’s first benchmark for human spatial navigation.

The intuitive nature of Sea Hero Quest VR now allows us to track even more subtle and detailed reactions such as eye movements, as well as replicate highly credible lab-based experiments not possible in a mobile setting, like the so-called ‘Morris Water Maze’.

And don’t worry, even if you’re not a great navigator, it doesn’t mean you’re more likely to get dementia.

The VR game

If you would like to take part in future research to help UCL scientists fight dementia please email the following address: spierslab@ucl.ac.uk