Atrial fibrillation (A-fib) is a condition in which the heart beats irregularly. More specifically, the atria of the heart — the chambers that receive blood and pump it out to the heart’s ventricles and the rest of the body — beat at an irregular rhythm.
A-fib is the most common form of arrhythmia, affecting between 2.7 and 6.1 million adults in the United States.
Previous research has shown that people with A-fib have a higher risk of dementia, and also that people can take blood thinners to reduce this risk.