scholarly journals A Framework for Improving the Interpersonal Relationship of the Elderly with Mild Cognitive Impairment by Using Speaker Recognition and Social Network Platforms

Author(s):  
Tan-Hsu Tan ◽  
Fu-Rong Jean ◽  
Chia-Jung Lin ◽  
Tsung-Yu Liu ◽  
Yung-Fa Huang

This study aims to develop an elderly care system for improving the interpersonal relationship of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by employing the speaker recognition technique and association functionality of social network platforms. Firstly, the speaker recognition units based on the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) and Gaussian Mixture Model-Universal Background Model (GMM-UBM) are implemented to identify the visitor via individual input utterance. After the visitor is identified, the proposed system will be linked to the private database and social network platforms to extract the associated message of two parties. Experimental results indicate that the speaker recognition unit based on GMM-UBM achieves the best performance. Finally, five elderly persons are invited to measure the usability of the proposed system. A questionnaire is used to survey the five elderly persons, and the result indicates that the proposed system is highly potentially applicable in improving the interpersonal relationship of the elderly with MCI.

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suvira Ramlall ◽  
Jennifer Chipps ◽  
Ahmed I Bhigjee ◽  
Basil J Pillay

<p><strong>Background. </strong>Neuropsychological tests can successfully distinguish between healthy elderly persons and those with clinically significant cognitive impairment. </p><p><strong>Objectives. </strong>A battery of neuropsychological tests was evaluated for their discrimination validity of cognitive impairment in a group of elderly persons in Durban, South Africa. </p><p><strong>Method. </strong>A sample of 117 English-speaking participants of different race groups (9 with dementia, 30 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 78 controls) from a group of residential homes for the elderly was administered a battery of 11 neuropsychological tests. Kruskal-Wallis independent sample tests were used to compare performance of tests in the groups. Sensitivity and specificity of the tests for dementia and MCI were determined using random operating curve (ROC) analysis. </p><p><strong>Results. </strong>Most tests were able to discriminate between participants with dementia or MCI, and controls (<em>p</em>&lt;0.05). Area under the curve (AUC) values for dementia v. non-dementia participants ranged from 0.519 for the digit span (forward) to 0.828 for the digit symbol (90 s), with 14 of the 29 test scores achieving significance (<em>p</em>&lt;0.05). AUC values for MCI participants ranged from 0.754 for controlled oral word association test (COWAT) Animal to 0.507 for the Rey complex figure test copy, with 17 of the 29 scores achieving significance (<em>p</em>&lt;0.05). </p><p><strong>Conclusions. </strong>Several measures from the neuropsychological battery had discrimination validity for the differential diagnosis of cognitive disturbances in the elderly. Further studies are needed to assess the effect of culture and language on the appropriateness of the tests for different populations.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
Maria dos Anjos Dixe ◽  
Mônica Braúna ◽  
Timóteo Camacho ◽  
Filipa Couto ◽  
João Apóstolo

ABSTRACT Mild cognitive decline is a feared aspect of aging associated with frailty experienced by individuals. Objective: To determine the number of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI); to determine the relationship of sociodemographic and clinical variables by group of individuals with or without MCI and to determine the relationship between MCI assessed by 6CIT and the cognitive domains assessed by the MoCA. Methods: A correlational study was conducted of 44 elderly individuals attending a day-care center or residing in a care home, with an average age of 88.9 ± 8.8 years who answered a structured interview collecting sociodemographic and clinical data. Results: The elderly living at home had higher average body mass index and number of pathologies than those living in an institution for the elderly (p < 0.01). 63.6% of the elderly did not have MCI, and no differences were found between residential settings. The comparison between 6CIT and MoCA yielded differences in the general domain and in visual, attention, abstraction and, orientation subdomains. Conclusion: Cognitive stimulation interventions should be optimized according to the residential setting at the level of comorbidities and nutrition.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shohei Kato ◽  
Akira Homma ◽  
Takuto Sakuma

Objective: This study presents a novel approach for early detection of cognitive impairment in the elderly. The approach incorporates the use of speech sound analysis, multivariate statistics, and data-mining techniques. We have developed a speech prosody-based cognitive impairment rating (SPCIR) that can distinguish between cognitively normal controls and elderly people with mild Alzheimer's disease (mAD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using prosodic signals extracted from elderly speech while administering a questionnaire. Two hundred and seventy-three Japanese subjects (73 males and 200 females between the ages of 65 and 96) participated in this study. The authors collected speech sounds from segments of dialogue during a revised Hasegawa's dementia scale (HDS-R) examination and talking about topics related to hometown, childhood, and school. The segments correspond to speech sounds from answers to questions regarding birthdate (T1), the name of the subject's elementary school (T2), time orientation (Q2), and repetition of three-digit numbers backward (Q6). As many prosodic features as possible were extracted from each of the speech sounds, including fundamental frequency, formant, and intensity features and mel-frequency cepstral coefficients. They were refined using principal component analysis and/or feature selection. The authors calculated an SPCIR using multiple linear regression analysis. Conclusion: In addition, this study proposes a binary discrimination model of SPCIR using multivariate logistic regression and model selection with receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and reports on the sensitivity and specificity of SPCIR for diagnosis (control vs. MCI/mAD). The study also reports discriminative performances well, thereby suggesting that the proposed approach might be an effective tool for screening the elderly for mAD and MCI.


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