It's difficult and very costly fill out any research study, but neurology is especially hard. Is the answer a pool of pre-registered candidates recruited over the internet?

I did not realize that money is the #1 thing keeping us from having effective treatments of Alzheimer's:

About a third of the cost of running clinical trials comes from the effort to recruit patients, and many trials are delayed or never happen because scientists can't find enough patients or don't have enough money to complete their research, Weiner said.

All clinical trials have a tough time finding recruits, but the problem is particularly acute for neurological diseases. Brain conditions tend to develop very slowly - over decades, rather than months or years, and the diseases are complex. This makes research and the lengthy process of following trial participants time consuming, expensive and difficult to do.

While promising discoveries have been made for some neurological diseases, effective treatments for Alzheimer's and many other brain diseases have not been found.

"The single biggest reason why we don't have effective treatments for Alzheimer's is simply money," said Weiner, principal investigator of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a $140 million project funded by the National Institutes of Health that is considered the world's largest observational study for the disease.

By establishing the registry, the money saved in recruitment would be funneled to research, he said.

Random but cool: one of the Golden State Warriors made a PSA: http://www.nba.com/warriors/video/2014/04/08/BrainRegistryPSAhighresmov-3229643/

Thanks for this video. Very cool.

A pair of eye-opening factoids:

Alzheimer's, a progressive, fatal brain disease, is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S. and affects 1 in 8 older Americans. 

One in 3 adults will suffer from a brain disease or injury in his or her lifetime.

To sign up as a volunteer in the Brain Health Registry, go to www.brainhealthregistry.org.

DONE. Thanks for this, guys!

You're welcome. Thank you for signing up, Elizabeth!