Interpersonal communication in the context of dementia

The assessment of dementia draws, primarily, on measures of memory and language. However, dementia also affects interpersonal and social functioning. Therefore, objective assessment of interpersonal interaction may provide relevant and sensitive measures of the severity and type of dementia. We examined the vocal acoustics and interpersonal interactions of a group of patients with Parkinson's disease and mild to moderate dementia. Objective measures of performance during a semistructured interview correlated with clinical ratings made independently by a neurologist. Our findings indicate that dementia affects interpersonal abilities in specific ways that can be objectively measured using computer analyses of speech patterns.