Anil K. Raj, M.D.

Early Alzheimer's Automated Screening Test (EAAST)

The goal of the project is to develop a real-time cognitive performance test for evaluation of early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Currently testing for early Alzheimer's changes is limited by the format of existing test methods. The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) team will apply our expertise in real-time cognitive state assessment and multi-agent integration architectures to create a novel automated screening test that detect subtle underlying cognitive function decrements, allowing for earlier detection of onset of Alzheimer's. We will work with Dr. David Loewenstein at the University of Miami and others to identify suitable diagnostic tools (either existing or proposed) to be included in the proposed Early Alzheimer's Automated Screening Test (EAAST). In this 12-month project, IHMC will code EAAST in the Java programming language (Sun Microsystems, Santa Clara, CA) using standard programming methods to ensure usability across commonly used operating systems. EAAST will employ the IHMC Adaptive Multi-agent Integration (AMI) architecture to ensure timely completion of milestones. The AMI is a long-term development project that enables intercommunication of data from disparate, heterogeneous elements (e.g., psychophysiologic measures, data manipulation algorithms, adaptive automation, multi-sensory displays, performance tests, simulations, etc.) Not only will use of the AMI in EAAST ensure rapid development, it will also enable easy integration of future capabilities into the screening test. These capabilities, to be developed in out years (Phase II), could include sensors such electroencaphalogram (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), as well as dynamic manipulation of the screening test to control for overall performance. Dynamic manipulation based on individual performance could prove useful as a way to track, or even as a potential countermeasure for, cognitive degradation associated with the progression of Alzheimer's. Clinical testing for validation and verification are proposed for Phase II.