PhD Scientific Days 2022

Neurosciences II.

Alteration of Visuo-spatial System as an Early Marker of Cognitive Decline

Text of the abstract

Introduction: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of major neurocognitive disorders (NCDs) in the elderly. Ideal screening methods for large patient groups with NCDs are yet to be developed. Latest results suggest that decline in visuomotor function appears in the early stages of the disease which may have screening potential.
Aims: Our aim was to develop an automated, electronic screening tool for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) the prodromal phase of NCDs.
Methods: 68 individuals participated in our study, 46 healthy controls and 22 patients with clinically defined MCI. They underwent detailed neurological and neuropsychological evaluation, MRI acquisition and used a computer-based diagnostic algorithm called Precognize. Detailed statistical analysis was applied for all data.
Results: Significant differences were found between HC and MCI groups in mouse movement characteristics. Entropy of the mouse movements showed the most significant difference between the two groups for both the left (F=5.24; p=0.001) and the right hand (F=8.46; p<0.001). Correlation analysis between motor data and neuropsychological test scores revealed that positive correlation was strongest between motor parameters and Clinical Demenatia Rating scale score (average r:-0.36, all p’s<0.001). Age, gender and anxiety did not influence the motor parameters (all p’s>0.05).
Conclusion: Based on our results, hand movement analysis might serve a screening purpose as the Precognize system shows promising potential for the early recognition of MCI. Our findings are promising for the future development of an automatic, digital screening method for MCI.
Funding: National Brain Research Program II (2017-1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002), Hungarian Scientific Research Fund 2019 of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (PD- 132652), Janos Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (bo_78_20_2020), the Development of scientific workshops in medical, health sciences and pharmacy training (EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00009). This is an EU Joint Programme- Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) project. The project is supported through the following funding organization under the aegis of JPND- www.jpnd.eu (National Research, Development and Innovation, Hungary, 2019-2.1.7-ERA-NET-2020-00006).