Certain health markers take on increased importance as we age, which is why your cholesterol levels and blood pressure are primary topics of conversation with your doctor. However, it can be a little bit trickier when it comes to conditions like dementia, especially in its beginning phases. Fortunately, research is finally beginning to shed more light on cognitive decline and how to spot it sooner—including two subtle changes that could be early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
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A recent study used navigation to test for signs of dementia.
One of the revelations comes from a new study published in the journal PLOS Digital Health. The research team took 72 participants and split them into different groups, including 24 younger adults, 25 older adults who did not show signs of cognitive decline, and 23 who were showing signs of dementia. Each person was then tasked with exploring a university campus using a specialized phone app that provided a map and directions to five different locations that disappeared from their screens once they began walking.
Participants had to rely on memory and spatial recognition to reach each predetermined spot and could only access the map again if they felt lost. They scanned a QR code at each destination to record they had found it.
The team then analyzed data collected by the subjects’ phones, which included the number of times maps were accessed, how much time was spent navigating, and their routes, PsyPost reports.
Results of the study found that each group behaved differently when completing the tasks, with younger adults performing the best and logging the fewest map checks and pauses. And while both sets of older adults took longer to visit all five locations, the group with a history of cognitive decline was more likely to pause and reorient themselves or consult the map than the healthy group.
Pauses in navigating could be a sign of cognitive decline.
The research team concluded that while the time to complete the location search was similar, the increased number of reorientation pauses could suggest that it’s related to cognitive health. They pinpointed this after noticing the two groups traveled similar distances at nearly identical walking speeds.
“We were a bit surprised that the strongest difference between the group of older adults with elevated dementia risk and the one without risk was found in the number of short stops, presumably taken to orient themselves,” Jonas Marquardt, a PhD candidate at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and one of the study’s authors, told Psy Post. “It is hard to completely explain what this performance measure captures, but we assume the number of short stops is indicative of navigation abilities and executive function, as we have seen associations with other tasks related to executive function as well as an increased probability of stopping at intersections, presumably to recall and plan the correct path.”
The group admitted that its use of older adults with “subjective cognitive decline” represented a limitation compared to the diverse instances of brain health in the general population. However, they are still hopeful that smartphone tasks could help pinpoint cognitive decline early on and aid in diagnoses.
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A second study looked at speech patterns and brain health.
Other recent research focused on a different behavioral change that could be related to cognitive decline. In a study published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia in April 2024, a team of scientists analyzed data collected during the Framingham Heart Study that focused on 238 adults who showed no signs of dementia.
The previous study used PET scans to measure changes in amyloid and tau—two proteins that can signify the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in its early phases—while participants completed basic cognitive tests. These involved spoken responses to questions, which were recorded and analyzed for their patterns, per a press release. In the latest round of testing, participants were tasked with retelling details from a story they had heard 20 minutes prior.
There was a noticeable difference in some participants unrelated to overall memory scores.
Results of the analysis showed that participants with elevated tau protein in two specific areas of the brain spoke more slowly and took more frequent and longer pauses when giving their answers. However, there was no correlation between memory scores and increased levels of tau proteins overall.
Based on this finding, the team concluded that subtle speech pattern changes could be a marker of the early phases of Alzheimer’s, helping to pinpoint the issue before noticing increased proteins. While the team admitted there were some limitations in how participants’ responses might not accurately reflect everyday speech patterns, they were also hopeful that further studies could increase understanding of the relationship between the two.
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The takeaway.
Two recent studies have shed more light on subtle changes that could be early indicators of Alzheimer’s disease. The first used an app to test how different groups of participants navigated a campus to find five different locations. The results found that older adults who had shown signs of cognitive decline took longer pauses to reorient themselves and consult the provided map.
The second study focused on speech patterns. Through analysis, researchers found that participants with tau proteins in two key brain areas spoke more slowly and took more frequent and longer pauses while recanting details of a story they were told 20 minutes before.
Both teams of scientists are hopeful their findings could help make it easier to detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline, pending further research.
