Digital remote assessment of speech acoustics in cognitively unimpaired adults : feasibility, reliability and associations with amyloid pathology
(2024) In Alzheimer's Research and Therapy 16(1).- Abstract
Background: Digital speech assessment has potential relevance in the earliest, preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We evaluated the feasibility, test-retest reliability, and association with AD-related amyloid-beta (Aβ) pathology of speech acoustics measured over multiple assessments in a remote setting. Methods: Fifty cognitively unimpaired adults (Age 68 ± 6.2 years, 58% female, 46% Aβ-positive) completed remote, tablet-based speech assessments (i.e., picture description, journal-prompt storytelling, verbal fluency tasks) for five days. The testing paradigm was repeated after 2–3 weeks. Acoustic speech features were automatically extracted from the voice recordings, and mean scores were calculated over the 5-day period. We... (More)
Background: Digital speech assessment has potential relevance in the earliest, preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We evaluated the feasibility, test-retest reliability, and association with AD-related amyloid-beta (Aβ) pathology of speech acoustics measured over multiple assessments in a remote setting. Methods: Fifty cognitively unimpaired adults (Age 68 ± 6.2 years, 58% female, 46% Aβ-positive) completed remote, tablet-based speech assessments (i.e., picture description, journal-prompt storytelling, verbal fluency tasks) for five days. The testing paradigm was repeated after 2–3 weeks. Acoustic speech features were automatically extracted from the voice recordings, and mean scores were calculated over the 5-day period. We assessed feasibility by adherence rates and usability ratings on the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. Test-retest reliability was examined with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). We investigated the associations between acoustic features and Aβ-pathology, using linear regression models, adjusted for age, sex and education. Results: The speech assessment was feasible, indicated by 91.6% adherence and usability scores of 86.0 ± 9.9. High reliability (ICC ≥ 0.75) was found across averaged speech samples. Aβ-positive individuals displayed a higher pause-to-word ratio in picture description (B = -0.05, p = 0.040) and journal-prompt storytelling (B = -0.07, p = 0.032) than Aβ-negative individuals, although this effect lost significance after correction for multiple testing. Conclusion: Our findings support the feasibility and reliability of multi-day remote assessment of speech acoustics in cognitively unimpaired individuals with and without Aβ-pathology, which lays the foundation for the use of speech biomarkers in the context of early AD.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-12
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Alzheimer’s disease, Amyloid, Digital biomarker, Language, Remote assessment, Speech acoustics
- in
- Alzheimer's Research and Therapy
- volume
- 16
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 176
- publisher
- BioMed Central (BMC)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85200218441
- pmid:39090738
- ISSN
- 1758-9193
- DOI
- 10.1186/s13195-024-01543-3
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2221c061-0e70-4c11-af4d-4bbd150f16b4
- date added to LUP
- 2024-08-30 13:21:48
- date last changed
- 2024-08-31 03:00:13
@article{2221c061-0e70-4c11-af4d-4bbd150f16b4,
abstract = {{<p>Background: Digital speech assessment has potential relevance in the earliest, preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We evaluated the feasibility, test-retest reliability, and association with AD-related amyloid-beta (Aβ) pathology of speech acoustics measured over multiple assessments in a remote setting. Methods: Fifty cognitively unimpaired adults (Age 68 ± 6.2 years, 58% female, 46% Aβ-positive) completed remote, tablet-based speech assessments (i.e., picture description, journal-prompt storytelling, verbal fluency tasks) for five days. The testing paradigm was repeated after 2–3 weeks. Acoustic speech features were automatically extracted from the voice recordings, and mean scores were calculated over the 5-day period. We assessed feasibility by adherence rates and usability ratings on the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. Test-retest reliability was examined with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). We investigated the associations between acoustic features and Aβ-pathology, using linear regression models, adjusted for age, sex and education. Results: The speech assessment was feasible, indicated by 91.6% adherence and usability scores of 86.0 ± 9.9. High reliability (ICC ≥ 0.75) was found across averaged speech samples. Aβ-positive individuals displayed a higher pause-to-word ratio in picture description (B = -0.05, p = 0.040) and journal-prompt storytelling (B = -0.07, p = 0.032) than Aβ-negative individuals, although this effect lost significance after correction for multiple testing. Conclusion: Our findings support the feasibility and reliability of multi-day remote assessment of speech acoustics in cognitively unimpaired individuals with and without Aβ-pathology, which lays the foundation for the use of speech biomarkers in the context of early AD.</p>}},
author = {{van den Berg, Rosanne L. and de Boer, Casper and Zwan, Marissa D. and Jutten, Roos J. and van Liere, Mariska and van de Glind, Marie Christine A.B.J. and Dubbelman, Mark A. and Schlüter, Lisa Marie and van Harten, Argonde C. and Teunissen, Charlotte E. and van de Giessen, Elsmarieke and Barkhof, Frederik and Collij, Lyduine E. and Robin, Jessica and Simpson, William and Harrison, John E. and van der Flier, Wiesje M. and Sikkes, Sietske A.M.}},
issn = {{1758-9193}},
keywords = {{Alzheimer’s disease; Amyloid; Digital biomarker; Language; Remote assessment; Speech acoustics}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
series = {{Alzheimer's Research and Therapy}},
title = {{Digital remote assessment of speech acoustics in cognitively unimpaired adults : feasibility, reliability and associations with amyloid pathology}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13195-024-01543-3}},
doi = {{10.1186/s13195-024-01543-3}},
volume = {{16}},
year = {{2024}},
}