Department of Psychology, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2022;85(3):1129-1142. doi: 10.3233/JAD-215015.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is common in older adults, is a risk factor for dementia. Rapidly growing health care demand associated with global population aging has spurred the development of new digital tools for the assessment of cognitive performance in older adults.
To overcome methodological drawbacks of previous studies (e.g., use of potentially imprecise screening tools that fail to include patients with MCI), this study investigated the feasibility of assessing multiple cognitive functions in older adults with and without MCI by using a social robot.
This study included 33 older adults with or without MCI and 33 healthy young adults. We examined the utility of five robotic cognitive tests focused on language, episodic memory, prospective memory, and aspects of executive function to classify age-associated cognitive changes versus MCI. Standardized neuropsychological tests were collected to validate robotic test performance.
The assessment was well received by all participants. Robotic tests assessing delayed episodic memory, prospective memory, and aspects of executive function were optimal for differentiating between older adults with and without MCI, whereas the global cognitive test (i.e., Mini-Mental State Examination) failed to capture such subtle cognitive differences among older adults. Furthermore, robot-administered tests demonstrated sound ability to predict the results of standardized cognitive tests, even after adjustment for demographic variables and global cognitive status.
Overall, our results suggest the human-robot interaction approach is feasible for MCI identification. Incorporating additional cognitive test measures might improve the stability and reliability of such robot-assisted MCI diagnoses.
轻度认知障碍（MCI）在老年人中很常见，是痴呆的一个危险因素。全球人口老龄化带来的医疗保健需求的迅速增长，促使人们开发新的数字工具来评估老年人的认知表现。
为了克服以前研究的方法学缺陷（例如，使用可能不精确的筛选工具，这些工具未能包括 MCI 患者），本研究通过社交机器人评估 MCI 患者和非 MCI 老年人的多种认知功能的可行性。
本研究纳入了 33 名 MCI 患者和 33 名健康的年轻成年人。我们研究了 5 种机器人认知测试（分别针对语言、情景记忆、前瞻性记忆和执行功能的某些方面）评估与年龄相关的认知变化和 MCI 的效用。收集了标准化神经心理学测试来验证机器人测试的性能。
所有参与者都对评估表示欢迎。评估延迟情景记忆、前瞻性记忆和执行功能的机器人测试最适合区分有和无 MCI 的老年人，而全球认知测试（即 Mini-Mental State Examination）无法捕捉老年人之间如此微妙的认知差异。此外，机器人测试即使在调整了人口统计学变量和全球认知状态后，仍能很好地预测标准化认知测试的结果。
总的来说，我们的结果表明人机交互方法可用于识别 MCI。纳入额外的认知测试可能会提高这种机器人辅助 MCI 诊断的稳定性和可靠性。
