Abstract
Cognitive assessment typically involves assessing a person’s cognitive performance in unfamiliar and arguably unnatural clinical surroundings. User-centred approaches to assessment and monitoring, driven by issues such as enjoyability and familiarity, are largely absent. Everyday technologies, for example, smartphones represent an opportunity to obtain an objective assessment of a person’s cognitive capabilities in a non-threatening, discreet and familiar way, e.g. by everyday puzzle games undertaken as a leisure activity at home. We examined the strength of relationships that exist between performance on common puzzle games and standard measures of neuropsychological performance. Twenty-nine participants, aged 50 - 65 years, completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery and played three smartphone-based puzzle games in triplicate: a picture puzzle [Matches Plus], a word puzzle [Jumbline] and a number puzzle [Sudoku]. As anticipated, a priori, significant correlations were observed between scores on a picture puzzle and visual memory test (r = 0.49; p = 0.007); a word puzzle and estimated verbal IQ (r = 0.53; p = 0.003) and verbal learning (r = 0.30; p = 0.039) tests; and a number puzzle and reasoning/problem solving test (r = 0.42; p = 0.023). Further analyses making allowance for multiple comparisons identified a significant unanticipated correlation (r = 0.49; p = 0.007) between number puzzle scores and a measure of nonverbal working memory. Performance on these smartphone-based games was indicative of relative cognitive ability across several cognitive domains at a fixed time point. Smartphone-based, everyday puzzle games may offer a valid, portable measure of assessing and monitoring cognition in older adults.
Highlights
Current methods for assessing and monitoring Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can be lengthy and obtrusive and rely upon testing cognitive performance at fixed time-points, often in arguably unnatural clinical settings
Clinical assessment and diagnosis of dementia in the UK is based upon a clinical interview and assessment of activities of daily living, often involving the input of a relative or friend; the administration of standardised assessment scales to assess the severity of impairment in the individual; and a physical examination and/or brain scan where considered appropriate by the physician
Information and communication technology (ICT), the smartphone, represents an opportunity to obtain an objective assessment of a person’s cognitive capabilities in a non-threatening, discreet and familiar way, e.g. by everyday puzzle games undertaken as a leisure activity
Summary
Current methods for assessing and monitoring Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can be lengthy and obtrusive and rely upon testing cognitive performance at fixed time-points, often in arguably unnatural clinical settings. Information and communication technology (ICT), the smartphone, represents an opportunity to obtain an objective assessment of a person’s cognitive capabilities in a non-threatening, discreet and familiar way, e.g. by everyday puzzle games undertaken as a leisure activity.
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