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Portable AI System Can Help Detect Brain Decline

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on March 21, 2025.

FRIDAY, March 21, 2025 -- A portable system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can help detect early signs of brain decline, potentially offering up a red flag for people at risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, researchers said.

The test looks at specific aspects of motor function, analyzing seniors as they stand still, walk and stand up from a bench.

Fed data from these exercises, an AI program accurately identified 83% of participants who had already been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.

“The areas of the brain involved in cognitive impairment overlap with areas of the brain involved in motor function, so when one is diminished, the other is impacted as well,” senior researcher Trent Guess, an associate professor at the University of Missouri, said in a news release.

“These can be very subtle differences in motor function related to balance and walking that our new device is able to detect but would go unnoticed through observation,” he added.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) involves memory or thinking problems that are greater than can be explained by aging, but haven’t developed into full-fledged dementia.

The condition can be an early indicator of Alzheimer’s and dementia, researchers noted.

“Alzheimer’s disease is a significant problem here in the U.S. We know that if we can identify people early, we can provide early intervention to halt or slow the progression of the disease,” lead researcher Jamie Hall, an associate teaching professor at the University of Missouri, said in a news release. “Only about 8% of people in the U.S. who are believed to have MCI receive a clinical diagnosis.”

For their new test, researchers captured seniors’ movements using a camera and a force board -- a device that measures pressure and balance as a person stands on it.

A small group of 19 seniors with mild cognitive impairment were asked to stand, walk and stand up -- all while counting backwards in intervals of seven.

Researchers compared results from that group to those from 28 healthy seniors who were asked to perform the same tasks, and found that AI accurately detected most of the people with MCI.

“Our portable system can detect if a person walks slower or doesn’t take as big of a step because they are thinking very hard,” Hall said. “Some people have more sway and are less balanced or are slower to stand up when they are sitting. Our technology can measure these subtle differences in a way that you could not with a stopwatch.”

The team’s long-term goal is to develop the system so it can be used in various settings to screen for brain decline, including health departments, assisted living facilities, community centers, clinics and senior centers, Hall said.

“This portable system has many other applications, too, including looking at those with concussions, sports rehabilitation, ALS and Parkinson’s disease, knee replacements and hip replacements,” Guess said. “Moving is an important part of who we are. It’s rewarding to see that this portable system can be beneficial in a lot of different ways.”

The new study appears in the journal Alzheimer’s Disease and Associated Disorders.

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted March 2025

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