Slight variations in a person’s pulse rate could give clues about the likelihood of future cognitive decline, according to a new study, potentially giving us a valuable new test for cognitive problems that would be quick and easy to run.

This is something that researchers invest a lot of time in, because knowing when cognitive decline might start, and how it may progress, means better support and more clarity for those involved. Along the way, it also reveals new insights into how these conditions develop, and how they might be stopped for good.

In this study, an international team analyzed pulse rate data across a night of sleep from 503 individuals with an average age of 82. Cognitive tests were also carried out around that same time, as well as in at least one follow-up visit.