Temporal Dynamics of Subtle Cognitive Change: Validation of a User-Friendly Multidomain Digital Assessment Using an...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Digital Health

Background:

• Current clinical trial rating scales lack measurement fidelity for neurological and psychiatric indications.
• Digital, repeatable tests offer enhanced understanding of patient clinical trajectories.
• Few digital tools are validated for discerning and describing longitudinal changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the sensitivity of four digital cognitive tasks to change under alcohol challenge.
• To evaluate novel, repeatable, self-administered digital tasks as implementations of neurobehavioral paradigms.

Main Methods:

• Thirty healthy adults underwent alcohol and placebo challenges on separate days.
• Four digital tasks (Digit Symbol Substitution Task, reaction time, N-back, memory) were administered frequently.
• Digital tasks were compared with benchmark measures, with practice sessions preceding assessments.

Main Results:

• Alcohol significantly impaired cognitive performance across multiple digital measures.
• Performance returned to baseline as blood alcohol concentration decreased.
• Digital and benchmark measures showed moderate to strong correlations at peak intoxication.

Conclusions:

• The digital battery, alongside benchmark tests, is sensitive to subtle cognitive changes over time under alcohol challenge.
• Practice effects were minimal within the study protocol.
• Digital, patient-friendly tests are valuable for remote clinical studies needing sensitive measures of cognitive change.