Dementia risk can be spotted in the way people speak, say scientists
A person's way of speaking can be an indicator of the risk of developing dementia, a new study has found.
Dementia is a condition that affects the brain, causing memory loss, changes in behaviour and sometimes difficulty with movement. While there is no cure for dementia, an earlier diagnosis can help in treatment. And scientists have now discovered a risk sign of dementia that may show up when someone is talking. The research found that how fast someone talks could be a clue to their brain health.
The study was carried out by a team from the University of Toronto and the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Canada. They found that how quickly someone speaks is a better indicator of brain health than struggling to find words, which is something that happens as we get older.
Dr Jed Meltzer, who co-authored the study, said: "Our results indicate that changes in general talking speed may reflect changes in the brain. This suggests that talking speed should be tested as part of standard cognitive assessments to help clinicians detect cognitive decline faster and help older adults support their brain health as they age."
But the study of 'cognitive components of aging-related increase in word-finding difficulty' only found a link between talking speed and brain health, not that one causes the other. So, training a person to speak faster might not improve brain health, reports The Express.
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Published in the Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition journal, the research involved 125 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 90 who completed three different tests. One test was a picture-naming game where they had to answer questions about pictures while ignoring distracting words heard through headphones.
In another test, participants described two complex pictures for 60 seconds each, with AI-based software analysing their language performance. The final test included standard checks to determine mental abilities that often decline with age and are linked to dementia risk.
These checks tested executive function, which is the ability to manage conflicting information, stay focused and avoid distractions. Many of these abilities seemed to worsen with age, including the speed of finding words. The team found that it wasn't the pausing to find words that had the strongest link to brain health, but the speed of speech surrounding pauses. This suggests that while many older adults may worry about their need to pause to search for words, it might just be a normal part of ageing.
However, slowing down normal speech, regardless of pausing, may be a more "important indicator" of changes in brain health, according to the scientists. Researchers intend to carry out more studies where they check the same people over many years. They want to see if how fast someone speaks can really tell us about their brain health as they get older.
The Baycrest Centre reported: "In turn, these results could support the development of tools to detect cognitive decline as early as possible, allowing clinicians to prescribe interventions to help patients maintain or even improve their brain health as they age."
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