AI Detects Lewy-Body Dementia Via Emotional Vocalization Changes – Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers identified disease-specific reductions in emotional expressivity in Lewy body dementia through deep neural network analysis.

This reduced vocal expression is linked to cognitive impairment and brain region atrophy, distinguishing it from Alzheimer’s disease. Their study suggests vocal emotion analysis could aid in early detection and proper care.

Key Facts:

1. Lewy body dementia shows distinct reductions in vocal emotional expressivity.
2. This reduction is associated with cognitive impairment and insular cortex atrophy.
3. Deep neural network techniques can differentiate Lewy body dementia from other dementias.

Source: University of Tsukuba

Researchers at University of Tsukuba and IBM Research identified, for the first time, disease-specific reduction in emotional expressivity in Lewy body dementia by quantifying vocal expression of emotions using deep neural network techniques.

This reduction in vocal emotional expressions was associated with cognitive impairment and specific brain region atrophy and could serve as a distinguishing factor for individuals with Lewy body dementia.

Lewy body dementia is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. It progresses faster and has a broader range of symptoms compared with other forms of dementia, significantly decreasing patients’ quality of life.

However, because of overlapping symptoms with other diseases such as Alzheimer’s and the limited availability of specialized physicians and facilities, Lewy body dementia often goes undiagnosed.

Reduced emotional expression, a symptom typical in patients with dementia, affects quality of life—for example, by impairing daily communication and negatively impacting mental health. Despite its importance, no studies have objectively and quantitatively investigated emotional expression in individuals with Lewy body dementia.

In their new study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, the researchers collected voice data during story reading from individuals with Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and compared it with data from cognitively unimpaired older adults (control group). Vocal emotional expression was quantitatively compared using a deep learning-based emotion recognition model.

Results revealed that the Lewy body dementia group exhibited more negative and calmer emotional expressions and less overall expressiveness than the Alzheimer’s disease and control groups. This reduction was associated with cognitive impairment and insular cortex atrophy, both being typical in individuals with Lewy body dementia.

In addition, automated analysis of vocal emotional expressions demonstrated the potential of vocal emotional expression to differentiate individuals with Lewy body dementia from other groups.

The researchers believe using deep neural networks to analyze vocal emotional expression can potentially facilitate early detection and delivery of appropriate care for Lewy body dementia.

About this AI and dementia research news

Author: Masatomo Kobayashi
Source: University of Tsukuba
Contact: Masatomo Kobayashi – University of Tsukuba
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Open access.
“Vocal expression of emotions discriminates dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer’s disease” by Masatomo Kobayashi et al. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring

Abstract

Vocal expression of emotions discriminates dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer’s disease

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the two most common neurodegenerative dementias, both exhibit altered emotional processing. However, how vocal emotional expressions alter in and differ between DLB and AD remains uninvestigated.

We collected voice data during story reading from 152 older adults comprising DLB, AD, and cognitively unimpaired (CU) groups and compared their emotional prosody in terms of valence and arousal dimensions.

Compared with matched AD and CU participants, DLB patients showed reduced overall emotional expressiveness, as well as lower valence (more negative) and lower arousal (calmer), the extent of which was associated with cognitive impairment and insular atrophy. Classification models using vocal features discriminated DLB from AD and CU with an AUC of 0.83 and 0.78, respectively.

Our findings may aid in discriminating DLB patients from AD and CU individuals, serving as a surrogate marker for clinical and neuropathological changes in DLB.