A Novel Combined Audiovisual-Semantic Digital Tool for Early-Stage Cognitive Decline Detection: Development and...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Gerontology
• Digital Health

Background:

• Dementia presents a major public health issue, with early detection critical for intervention.
• Current cognitive screening tools often lack sensitivity for subtle decline or are impractical for widespread community use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel digital tool integrating audiovisual and semantic elements for rapid, acceptable community screening of cognitive decline in older adults.

Main Methods:

• 156 older adults completed tasks with increasing complexity, from unimodal to multimodal stimuli and basic to superordinate semantic categorization.
• Performance metrics included reaction time, accuracy, and false alarms; diagnostic utility was assessed using logistic regression and ROC analysis.
• Participant acceptability was evaluated through qualitative interviews.

Main Results:

• Significant cognitive declines were observed across the spectrum from no cognitive impairment to dementia (P<.001).
• The integrated audiovisual-semantic task at the basic categorization level effectively differentiated cognitive groups, outperforming basic tasks in diagnostic accuracy.
• Participant feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with nearly half finding the tasks "fun/interesting."

Conclusions:

• The developed audiovisual-semantic digital tool is a valid, well-accepted, and efficient instrument for cognitive screening in older adults.
• Its design, enhancing cognitive load via multimodal and semantic integration, improves sensitivity to early cognitive decline, making it suitable for community settings.