Longitudinal observational cohort study:Speech for Intelligent cognition change tracking and DEtection of Alzheimer's Disease (SIDE-AD)

INTRODUCTION: There is emerging evidence that speech may be a potential indicator and manifestation of early Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Therefore, the University of Edinburgh and Sony Research have partnered to create the Speech for Intelligent cognition change tracking and DEtection of Alzheimer's Disease (SIDE-AD) study, which aims to develop digital speech-based biomarkers for use in neurodegenerative disease.METHODS AND ANALYSIS: SIDE-AD is an observational longitudinal study, collecting samples of spontaneous speech. Participants are recruited from existing cohort studies as well as from the National Health Service (NHS)memory clinics in Scotland. Using an online platform, participants record a voice sample talking about their brain health and rate their mood, anxiety and apathy. The speech biomarkers will be analysed longitudinally, and we will use machine learning and natural language processing technology to automate the assessment of the respondents' speech patterns.ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The SIDE-AD study has been approved by the NHS Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 23/WM/0153, protocol number AC23046, IRAS Project ID 323311) and received NHS management approvals from Lothian, Fife and Forth Valley NHS boards. Our main ethical considerations pertain to the remote administration of the study, such as taking remote consent. To address this, we implemented a consent process, whereby the first step of the consent is done entirely remotely but a member of the research team contacts the participant over the phone to consent participants to the optional, most sensitive, elements of the study. Results will be presented at conferences, published in peer-reviewed journals and communicated to study participants.</p

Trauma and depressive symptomatology in middle-aged persons at high risk of dementia: the PREVENT Dementia Study

Objective: Depression and trauma are associated with changes in brain regions implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. The present study examined associations between childhood trauma, depression, adult cognitive functioning and risk of dementia. Methods: Data from 378 participants in the PREVENT Dementia Study aged 40–59 years. Linear and logistic models were used to assess associations between childhood trauma, depression, dementia risk, cognitive test scores and hippocampal volume. Results: Childhood trauma was associated with depression and reduced hippocampal volume but not current cognitive function or dementia risk. Poorer performance on a delayed face/name recall task was associated with depression. Childhood trauma was associated with lower hippocampal volume however poorer cognitive performance was mediated by depression rather than structural brain differences. Conclusion: Depressive symptomatology may be associated with dementia risk via multiple pathways, and future studies should consider subtypes of depressive symptomatology when examining its relationship to dementia

Steklov problem on differential forms

In this paper we study spectral properties of Dirichlet-to-Neumann map on differential forms obtained by a slight modification of the definition due to Belishev and Sharafutdinov. The resulting operator $\Lambda$ is shown to be self-adjoint on the subspace of coclosed forms and to have purely discrete spectrum there.We investigate properies of eigenvalues of $\Lambda$ and prove a Hersch-Payne-Schiffer type inequality relating products of those eigenvalues to eigenvalues of Hodge Laplacian on the boundary. Moreover, non-trivial eigenvalues of $\Lambda$ are always at least as large as eigenvalues of Dirichlet-to-Neumann map defined by Raulot and Savo. Finally, we remark that a particular case of $p$-forms on the boundary of $2p+2$-dimensional manifold shares a lot of important properties with the classical Steklov eigenvalue problem on surfaces.Comment: 18 page

Dementia trials and dementia tribulations: methodological and analytical challenges in dementia research

Dementia is a substantial and increasing public health concern. Despite decades of research, a cure or effective preventative treatment for dementia remains elusive. We offer critical review of contemporary dementia research and discuss potential reasons why progress in the field has not been as rapid as in other disciplines. We adopt a broad approach in keeping with the broad nature of the topic. We cover the difficulties inherent in studying dementia from 'bench' to 'bedside' to 'population'. We make particular reference to issues of operationalisation of the dementia syndrome and our evolving understanding of dementia as a research 'outcome'. We discuss contemporary 'hot topics' in dementia research methodology focussing on dementia models, pre-dementia states and biomarkers. Recognising the importance of prospective epidemiological cohorts and large-scale clinical trials we pay particular attention to these approaches and the challenges of generating results that have 'real world' external validity. Based on our thoughts we end with suggestions for future dementia research. Our review is designed to be critical but not unnecessarily negative. There is reason for cautious optimism in dementia research. The recent G8 summit on dementia and subsequent establishment of the World Dementia Council are examples of initiatives that reflect societal and political will to increase research efforts in dementia