Voice biomarkers as indicators of cognitive changes in middle and later adulthood

Voice prosody measures have been linked with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but it is unclear whether they are associated with normal cognitive aging. We assessed relationships between voice measures and 10-year cognitive changes in the MIDUS national sample of middle-aged and older adults ages 42-92, with a mean age of 64.09 (standard deviation = 11.23) at the second wave. Seven cognitive tests were assessed in 2003-2004 (Wave 2) and 2013-2014 (Wave 3). Voice measures were collected at Wave 3 (N = 2585) from audio recordings of the cognitive interviews. Analyses controlled for age, education, depressive symptoms, and health. As predicted, higher jitter was associated with greater declines in episodic memory, verbal fluency, and attention switching. Lower pulse was related to greater decline in episodic memory, and fewer voice breaks were related to greater declines in episodic memory and verbal fluency, although the direction of these effects was contrary to hypotheses. Findings suggest that voice biomarkers may offer a promising approach for early detection of risk factors for cognitive impairment or AD.