New tests to diagnose Alzheimer’s through voice responses
Posted on: 19/Aug/2015 3:10:43 PM
A researcher from the Seton Hall University in New Jersey has received a grant of US$ 380000 that will enable her to research tests on Alzheimers Disease diagnosis. By this test, the disease may be diagnosed just by listening to the patient`s voice. The researcher is of Indian origin.
The 3 year grant is from the National Institute of Deafness and Communicative Disorders. The research will be conducted in Seton Halls`s Voice Analytics and Neuropsychology Lab. An EEG and auditory feedback will be used to determine how the patients respond to speech tasks. It will also determine if the responses are different from those of Parkinsons’ patients, and ageing people without any of these diseases.
Says she, (I am) building (my) study based on previous research that indicated differences in voice patterns between normally ageing adults, and those with Parkinson`s disease. Your voice is really important... You react to (stimuli) with your voice automatically, without even realising it...now, the question is if we can use (voices) to indicate other neurological disorders... It could be possible to develop non-invasive, less expensive methods to detect whether or not a person in the early stages of a disease has Parkinson`s or Alzheimer`s... The test would be simple to administer, and could even potentially be done over the phone... (This) would not only increase early detection in the US, but could have a great impact on third world countries, where the disease is often never properly diagnosed or treated.
