Giffard Julia, Li Renjie, Roccati Eddy, Vogel Adam P, Bindoff Aidan D, Goldberg Lynette R, Bai Quan, Alty Jane
Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, College of Health and Medicine, Medical Science Precinct, Medical Sciences 1, University of Tasmania, Level 4, 17 Liverpool St, Hobart, TAS, 7000, Australia.
Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne, 550 Swanston St, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
Geroscience. 2025 Jun 24. doi: 10.1007/s11357-025-01739-x.
Non-invasive screening tools for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk are needed. Decline in episodic memory and subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) are both associated with elevated AD risk. We investigated associations between three cognitive domains (episodic memory, executive function, and working memory) and motor speech performance in older adults with healthy cognition (HC) or SCI. In total, 1014 community-dwelling participants (cross-sectional sample: 843 HC, mean 66.9 years, 72.8% female; 171 SCI, mean 66.3 years, 70.8% female) remotely completed cognitive tests (Paired Associates Learning and Spatial Working Memory from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery) and motor speech tests (Tasmanian [TAS] Test). We evaluated whether acoustic motor speech features extracted from 10-s tests of "pa," "ta," or "ka" syllable repetition improved episodic memory, executive function, and working memory regression models over age, sex, education, anxiety, and depression (ΔAIC > 2). Motor speech features improved estimation of cognitive scores over fixed demographic and clinical variables in each group and cognitive domain. In summary, we found associations between motor speech performance and cognition in older adults. Short motor speech tests demonstrate potential for non-invasive, cost-effective AD risk screening. Longitudinal research is needed to investigate relationships between individual motor speech features and cognitive changes confirmed to result from the progression of AD.
需要用于阿尔茨海默病（AD）风险的非侵入性筛查工具。情景记忆衰退和主观认知障碍（SCI）均与AD风险升高相关。我们调查了健康认知（HC）或SCI的老年人的三个认知领域（情景记忆、执行功能和工作记忆）与运动言语表现之间的关联。共有1014名社区居住参与者（横断面样本：843名HC，平均66.9岁，72.8%为女性；171名SCI，平均66.3岁，70.8%为女性）远程完成了认知测试（来自剑桥神经心理测试自动成套系统的配对联想学习和空间工作记忆）和运动言语测试（塔斯马尼亚[TAS]测试）。我们评估了从“pa”“ta”或“ka”音节重复的10秒测试中提取的声学运动言语特征是否比年龄、性别、教育程度、焦虑和抑郁更能改善情景记忆、执行功能和工作记忆回归模型（ΔAIC>2）。在每组和每个认知领域中，运动言语特征比固定的人口统计学和临床变量更能改善认知分数的估计。总之，我们发现老年人的运动言语表现与认知之间存在关联。简短的运动言语测试显示出非侵入性、成本效益高的AD风险筛查潜力。需要进行纵向研究来调查个体运动言语特征与经证实由AD进展导致的认知变化之间的关系。
