ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Comput. Neurosci.

Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fncom.2025.1564932

This article is part of the Research TopicInterdisciplinary Synergies in Neuroinformatics, Cognitive Computing, and Computational NeuroscienceView all 3 articles

A new method for community-based intelligent screening of early Alzheimer's disease populations based on digital biomarkers of the writing process

Provisionally accepted
Shuwu LiShuwu Li1Kai LiKai Li2,3*Jiakang LiuJiakang Liu1Shouqiang HuangShouqiang Huang1Chen WangChen Wang1Yuting TuYuting Tu1Bo WangBo Wang1Pengpeng ZhangPengpeng Zhang2Yuntian LuoYuntian Luo2Yanli ZhangYanli Zhang2,4*Tong ChenTong Chen5*
  • 1School of Medical Technology and lnformation Engineering, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2School of Information Engineering, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 3Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Brain Cognition and Brain Diseases Digital Medical Instruments, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 4Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Brain Cognition and Brain Diseases Digital Medical Instruments, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 5Department of Neurology, Second Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China

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In response to the shortcomings of the current Alzheimer's disease (AD) early populations assessment, which is based on neuropsychological scales with high subjectivity, low accuracy of repeated measurements, tedious process and dependence on physicians, it was found that digital biomarkers based on the writing process can effectively characterize the cognitive deficits of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD. Methods: this study designed a digital writing assessment paradigm, extracted dynamic handwriting and image data during the paradigm assessment process, and analyzed digital biomarkers of the writing process to assess subjects' cognitive functions. A total of 72 subjects, including 34 health controls (HC) and 38 MCI due to AD, were enrolled in this study. Results: Their combined screening efficacy of digital biomarkers based on the MCI writing process due to AD populations having an area under curve (AUC) of 0.918, and a confidence interval (CI) of 0.854-0.982, was higher than the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (AUC = 0.859, CI = 0.772-0.947) and the Mini-mental State Examination Scale (AUC = 0.783, CI = 0.678-0.888). Conclusions: Therefore, digital biomarkers based on the writing process can characterize and quantify the cognitive function of MCI due to AD populations at a fine-grained level, which is expected to be a new method for intelligent screening and early warning of early AD populations in a community-based physician-free setting.

Keywords: Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's disease, digital biomarkers, early warning, Writing

Received: 22 Jan 2025; Accepted: 20 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Li, Li, Liu, Huang, Wang, Tu, Wang, Zhang, Luo, Zhang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Kai Li, School of Information Engineering, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
Yanli Zhang, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Brain Cognition and Brain Diseases Digital Medical Instruments, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
Tong Chen, Department of Neurology, Second Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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