Affiliations: [a] Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany
| [b] Geriatric Center at the University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany
| [c]
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Tübingen, Germany
| [d] Section for Dementia Research, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany
| [e]
Academy for Art Therapy, Nürtingen, Germany
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Christoph Laske, MD, Section for Dementia Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Calwerstraße 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. Tel.: +49 0 7071 2982311; Fax: +49 0 7071 294141; E-mail: christoph.laske@med.uni-tuebingen.de.
Abstract: There is a considerable delay in the diagnosis of dementia, which may reduce the effectiveness of available treatments. Thus, it is of great interest to develop fast and easy to perform, non-invasive and non-expensive diagnostic measures for the early detection of cognitive impairment and dementia. Here we investigate movement kinematics between 20 patients with early dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease (eDAT), 30 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and 20 cognitively healthy control (HC) individuals while copying a three-dimensional house using a digitizing tablet. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves and logistic regression analyzes have been conducted to explore whether alterations in movement kinematics could be used to discriminate patients with aMCI and eDAT from healthy individuals. Time-in-air (i.e., transitioning from one stroke to the next without touching the surface) differed significantly between patients with aMCI, eDAT, and HCs demonstrating an excellent sensitivity and a moderate specificity to discriminate aMCI subjects from normal elderly and an excellent sensitivity and specificity to discriminate patients affected by mild Alzheimer’s disease from healthy individuals. Time-on-surface (i.e., time while stylus is touching the surface) differed only between HCs and patients with eDAT but not between HCs and patients with aMCI. Furthermore, total-time (i.e., time-in-air plus time-on-surface) did not differ between patients with aMCI and early dementia due to AD. Modern digitizing devices offer the opportunity to measure a broad range of visuoconstructive abilities that may be used as a fast and easy to perform screening instrument for the early detection of cognitive impairment and dementia in primary care.
