Brain vital signs as a quantitative measure of cognition: Methodological implementation in a care home environment

Managing cognitive function in care homes is a significant challenge. Individuals in care have a variety of scores across standard clinical assessments, such as the Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE), and many of them have scores that fall within the range associated with dementia. A recent methodological advance, brain vital sign monitoring through auditory event-related potentials, provides an objective and sensitive physiological measurement to track abnormalities, differences, or changes in cognitive function. Taking advantage of point-of-care accessibility, the current study evaluated the methodological feasibility, the assessment of whether a particular research method can be successfully implemented, of quantitatively measuring cognition of care home residents using brain vital signs. Secondarily, the current study examined the relationship between brain vital signs, specifically the cognitive processing associated N400 component, and MMSE scores in care home residents.

Brain vital signs used the established N100 (auditory sensation), P300 (basic attention), and N400 (cognitive processing) event-related potential (ERP) components. A total of 52 residents were enrolled, with all participants evaluated using the MMSE. Participants were assigned into homogeneous groups based on their MMSE scores, and were categorized into low (n = 14), medium (n = 17), and high (n = 13) MMSE groups. Both brain vital sign measures and underlying ERP waveforms were examined. Statistical analyses used partial least squares correlation (PLS) analyses in which both MMSE and age were included as factors, as well as jackknife approaches, to test for significant brain vital sign changes.

The current study successfully measured and analyzed standardized, quantifiable brain vital signs in a care home setting. ERP waveform data showed specific N400 changes between MMSE groups as a function of MMSE score. PLS analyses confirmed significant MMSE-related and age-related differences in the N400 amplitude (p < 0.05, corrected). Similarly, the jackknife approach emphasized the N400 latency difference between the low and high MMSE groups.

It was possible to acquire brain vital signs measures in care home residents. Additionally, the current study evaluated brain vital signs relative to MMSE in this group. The comparison revealed significant decreasing in N400 response amplitude (cognitive processing) as a function of both MMSE score and age, as well as a slowing of N400 latency. The findings indicate that objective neurophysiological measures of impairment are detectable in care home residents across the span of MMSE scores. Direct comparison to MMSE- and age-related variables represents a critical initial step ahead of future studies that will investigate relative improvements in sensitivity, validity, reliability and related advantages of brain vital sign monitoring.