Sensors (May 2013)

On the Selection of Non-Invasive Methods Based on Speech Analysis Oriented to Automatic Alzheimer Disease Diagnosis

  • Unai Martinez de Lizardui,
  • Nora Barroso,
  • Miriam Ecay-Torres,
  • Pablo Martinez-Lage,
  • Marcos Faundez-Zanuy,
  • Aitzol Ezeiza,
  • Jordi Solé-Casals,
  • Harkaitz Egiraun,
  • Carlos Manuel Travieso,
  • Jesus-Bernardino Alonso,
  • Karmele López-de-Ipiña

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s130506730
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 5
pp. 6730 – 6745

Abstract

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The work presented here is part of a larger study to identify novel technologies and biomarkers for early Alzheimer disease (AD) detection and it focuses on evaluating the suitability of a new approach for early AD diagnosis by non-invasive methods. The purpose is to examine in a pilot study the potential of applying intelligent algorithms to speech features obtained from suspected patients in order to contribute to the improvement of diagnosis of AD and its degree of severity. In this sense, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have been used for the automatic classification of the two classes (AD and control subjects). Two human issues have been analyzed for feature selection: Spontaneous Speech and Emotional Response. Not only linear features but also non-linear ones, such as Fractal Dimension, have been explored. The approach is non invasive, low cost and without any side effects. Obtained experimental results were very satisfactory and promising for early diagnosis and classification of AD patients.

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