Scientists develop speech recognition tool to predict Alzheimer’s onset

A new AI-based model could predict the onset of Alzheimers disease by analysing an individuals speech, the developers said.. Trained on audio recordings of patients with mild cognitive impairmentearly stages of memory loss, the model achieved 78.5 per cent accuracy in forecasting whether patients would remain stable or progress to dementia within six years, according to the researchers...

Alzheimers disease is the most common form of dementia and impacts ones everyday activities by impairing memory and thinking...

The researchers at Boston University, US, used recordings of initial interviews of 166 patients aged 63-97 and trained the model using machine learning to discern patterns between speech, demographics, diagnosis, and how their condition was worsening...

The model analyses interview content such as spoken words and sentence structure, rather than speech features such as enunciation or speed, showed the study published in the journal Alzheimers and Dementia...

The researchers emphasised that early prediction is crucial as current diagnostic tests often identify Alzheimers disease only after significant cognitive decline has occurred such as memories starting to slip away and personality traits beginning to shift...

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