Researchers in the United Stated discovered that changes in the retina are an early symptom of a form of dementia in people genetically predisposed to the disorder.

These genetically predisposed individuals lose cells in the retina even before their behaviors shift.

The retina is made up of neurons connected directly to the brain.

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"The finding suggests that the retina acts as a type of 'window to the brain'," said Li Gan from Gladstone Institutes, an independent and nonprofit biomedical research organization.

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Carriers of the mutation that results in familial frontotemporal dementia (FTD) experience retinal degeneration. This condition results in the thinning of this part of the eye, making the thinning easily measured for future clinical trials.

FTD is characterized by progressive cell degeneration in the brain's frontal or temporal lobes.

The genetic brain disorder was once called Pick's disease after Dr. Arnold Pick, who described an FTD patient in 1892 as having particular symptoms which affected speech.

Once considered rare, FTD is now believed to account for 10 to 15 percent of all dementia cases. 

Gan along with Ari Green, an associate professor of neurology at University of California, San Francisco, studied several persons with a genetic mutation that commonly leads to FTD.

The study's lead author, Michael Ward, stated that because of the discovery, the retina may be used to understand how FTD develops.

Following the individuals involved in the study will help researchers discover the correlation between the thinning of the retina with the progression of the disease. The efficacy of treatment might be discovered through a simple eye exam.

Currently, there is no known or approved cure for FTD.

The disease worsens with time. Treatment is primarily focused on managing the disease, specifically, the behavior of those suffering from it.