The Caring Corner®
Voice Test for Dementia May Revolutionize Cognitive Testing!
Would you rather speak into a microphone or have a spinal tap? Recent research suggests that voice testing for Alzheimers disease can be as effective as traditional methods that include extracting cerebral spinal fluid from your lumbar area. In this post I want to share with you 1 – how we diagnose Alzheimer’s currently, 2 – the challenges with this process, and 3 – the advantages of this new method using voice analysis recently discovered by scientists
Current method
One of the challenges with Alzheimer’s is that it’s hard to diagnose! The tangles and plaques of the disease may present themselves in the brain as long as 30 years before actual cognitive symptoms appear. The only way to know for sure is to have an autopsy done on your brain, where they can identify the plaques and tangles that are the hallmark of the disease. No one I know who’s living wants to get a brain autopsy!
So doctors make what’s called a “clinical diagnosis”. They perform a bunch of tests to rule things in, and rule things out, and then use their best professional opinion to render a determination. Some of the tests that are performed include PET Scans and spinal taps where they analyze biomarkers in your cerebrospinal fluid.
Challenges
Unfortunately, these biomarkers can be faulty. One study showed 25% of people who were thought to have Alzheimer’s based on various biomarkers were found not to have Alzheimer’s once they passed away and brain autopsies were performed. And this is where the new approach is potentially game changing! Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have found that they can analyze people’s voice patterns to identify cognitive impairment long before more severe symptoms begin to show.
The authors of the study took about 200 people. Half of them had cognitive impairment and half did not. They were asked to provide a brief description of a piece of art called The Circus Procession. The researchers recorded these descriptions and analyzed them using artificial intelligence and natural language processing. With that, they established a benchmark of conversational ability for each participant taking into account things such as motor control when they spoke, the density and complexity of ideas and grammar, and other speech features.
When they compared these results to the results of the prior tests and biomarkers and found that the voice biomarkers were accurate in determining cognitive status, and were also accurate in tracking disease progression, as measured by changes in a 2-year follow-up.
Why Is This Good News and What Does It Mean for You?
First, It’s good news for all of us that science is developing predictive tools that help identify Alzheimers and other dementias early in the disease progression without taking much time and not being invasive and potentially painful like a spinal tap. My personal experience is that we always must advocate for our loved ones and if we suspect that he or she has Alzheimer’s disease you want to be aware of all testing procedures that are available.
And if the conclusion is that they have Alzheimers, you want to know as soon as possible so you can prepare appropriately, which might include additional testing, possible participation in clinical trials, and lifestyle and end-of-life planning decisions that can minimize the impacts of the disease and how it affects the rest of the family.
Call Acorn for great caregivers when you need home care or elder care services for a loved in Chapel Hill, Durham and surrounding areas. Caregivers can provide simple companionship or may serve clients with Alzheimer’s, dementia, on hospice and bed bound patients. From a few hours per visit to 24/7 care.
