Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 50 million people worldwide and often devastates both those who have the disease and their families and loved ones. There is no known cure, and the slow, progressive nature of the disease makes early diagnosis difficult.
Researchers from the École de Communicatie Supérieure and Dartmouth University are investigating the use of earphone microphones to recognize early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Miriam Boutros will present their work on Tuesday, November 19 at 4:15 PM ET as part of the virtual 187th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, running from November 18 to 22, 2024.
People with Alzheimer’s disease exhibit a loss of motor control along with cognitive decline. One of the first signs of this decay can be noticed in involuntary eye movements known as saccades. These rapid eye movements in Alzheimer’s patients are often slower, less accurate or delayed compared to those in healthy individuals.
Eye movements are fascinating because they are among the fastest and most precise movements in the human body and thus depend on both excellent motor skills and cognitive functioning.”
Arian Shamei, researcher
Directly detecting and analyzing saccades requires monitoring a patient using eye-tracking equipment, which is not easily accessible to most people. Boutros and her colleagues are investigating an alternative method using a more ubiquitous and less intrusive technology: earpiece microphones. This research is led by Rachel Bouserhal of the Research in Hearing Health and Assistive Devices (RHAD) Laboratory at the École de Technology Supérieure and Chris Niemczak of Dartmouth University’s Geisel School of Medicine.
“We use a device called an audible device,” Boutros said. “It is an earpiece with in-ear microphones that capture physiological signals from the body. Our goal is to develop health monitoring algorithms for hearing aids, capable of long-term continuous monitoring and early disease detection.”
Eye movements, including saccades, cause eardrum vibrations that can be picked up by sensitive microphones in the ear. The researchers conduct experiments with volunteers, providing them with both hearing aids and conventional eye trackers. Their goal is to identify signals that correspond to saccades, and to distinguish between healthy signals and others indicative of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
They hope that their research will one day lead to devices that can perform non-invasive continuous monitoring for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological diseases.
“While the current project focuses on long-term monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease, we ultimately want to tackle other diseases and be able to differentiate between them based on symptoms that can be monitored via in-ear signals,” Shamei said.
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