Evaluating the feasibility of cognitive impairment detection in Alzheimer's disease screening using a computerized visual dynamic test

BackgroundAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease without known cure. However, early medical treatment can help control its progression and postpone intellectual decay. Since AD is preceded by a period of cognitive deterioration, the effective assessment of cognitive capabilities is crucial to develop reliable screening procedures. For this purpose, cognitive tests are extensively used to evaluate cognitive areas such as language, attention, or memory.MethodsIn this work, we analyzed the potential of a visual dynamics evaluation, the rapid serial visual presentation task (RSVP), for the detection of cognitive impairment in AD. We compared this evaluation with two of the most extended brief cognitive tests applied in Spain: the Clock-drawing test (CDT) and the Phototest. For this purpose, we assessed a group of patients (mild AD and mild cognitive impairment) and controls, and we evaluated the ability of the three tests for the discrimination of the two groups.ResultsThe preliminary results obtained suggest the RSVP performance is statistically higher for the controls than for the patients (p-value = 0.013). Furthermore, we obtained promising classification results for this test (mean accuracy of 0.91 with 95% confidence interval 0.72, 0.97).ConclusionsSince the RSVP is a computerized, auto-scored, and potentially self-administered brief test, it could contribute to speeding-up cognitive impairment screening and to reducing the associated costs. Furthermore, this evaluation could be combined with other tests to augment the efficiency of cognitive impairment screening protocols and to potentially monitor patients under medical treatment.

Automated summary

In this study, the potential of a visual dynamics evaluation called RSVP for detecting cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease (AD) was analyzed and compared with two commonly used cognitive tests in Spain. The preliminary results showed that the RSVP performance was significantly better in the control group compared to the patients, and the test exhibited high classification accuracy. This test can contribute to speeding up cognitive impairment screening and reducing associated costs.