An older person's cognitive health is not always obvious. Cognitive impairment and dementia manifest gradually over time, and a person may be unaware of their advance. During this subtle transition, such a person may continue living as they always have, going about their business at home and behind the wheel. But this could lead to a dangerous car accident.
So, researchers from Columbia University have announced the development of AI algorithms that can detect mild cognitive impairment and dementia in older people based on the way they drive. The authors report in the journal Geriatrics that their algorithm is 88 percent accurate.
"Driving is a complex task involving dynamic cognitive processes and requiring essential cognitive functions and perceptual motor skills," says senior author Guohua Li, professor of epidemiology. "Our study indicates that naturalistic driving behaviors can be used as comprehensive and reliable markers for mild cognitive impairment and dementia."
Random forest model
The algorithms the researchers developed were based on a common AI statistical method involving "decision trees" that form a "random forest model." The most successful algorithm, according to lead author Sharon Di, associate professor of civil engineering, was based on "variables derived from the naturalistic driving data and basic demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, race/ethnicity and education level."
Decision trees are often used in memes in which answering "yes" or "no" regarding some attribute leads you down a path to another question, which in turn ultimately leads to a final conclusion.
Credit:Big Think
Data used in the study
The algorithm was developed using data sourced by the Longitudinal Research on Aging Drivers (LongROAD) study sponsored by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. It came from in-vehicle recording devices that captured the driving behaviors of 2,977 participants from August 2015 through March 2019. At the time the project began, the motorists' ages ranged from 65 to 79 years. From the raw data, the authors of the new study derived 29 behavioral variables, which they used to develop cognitive profiles of the drivers.
Credit: Zoran Zeremski/Adobe Stock
The researchers then developed a series of machine-learning models to predict cognitive issues, with differing success rates. While models based on driving variables alone were just 66 percent accurate, and demographic models less so at 29 percent, using both models together produced an accuracy rate of 88 percent.
The researchers also explored the validity of individual factors as predictors of cognitive issues. In order of most reliable to least reliable, they were: (1) age; (2) percentage of trips traveled within 15 miles of home; (3) race/ethnicity; (4) minutes per round trip; and (5) number of hard braking events.
Li is hopeful that his team's work can help keep roadways and older drivers safe. "If validated," he says, "the algorithms developed in this study could provide a novel, unobtrusive screening tool for early detection and management of mild cognitive impairment and dementia in older drivers."
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Scientists from Israel carried out a study that might prove groundbreaking in the human quest to slow the biological march of time. Researchers used oxygen treatments in hyperbaric chambers to stop blood cells from aging, actually making them grow younger.
The scientists devised a novel program that uses high-pressure oxygen in a pressure chamber to reverse two key processes that stem from aging. They were able to counteract the shortening of telomeres, which are protective regions at the ends of every chromosome, and the body's aggregation of old and poorly-functioning cells.
As we get older, our cells continue to divide, while the telomeres keep getting shorter. If they become too short, the cells stop replicating (becoming "senescent") and eventually die. This results in genetic aging. Analyzing the study participant immune cells, the researchers saw a lengthening in 38 percent of the telomeres, while the senescent cells decreased by 37 percent. This is similar to the cellular state of their bodies 25 years earlier, the researchers noted.
The pressurized chamber involved in the study.
Credit: Shamir Medical Center
The study involved 35 healthy people over 64 years old, who underwent 60 hyperbaric sessions in 3 months. With the air pressure in the chamber twice that of normal, the subjects would breathe pure oxygen, saturating their blood and bodily tissues.
The research team was led by Professor Shai Efrati from Tel Aviv University, who is also the Founder and Director of the Sagol Center of Hyperbaric Medicine at the Shamir Medical Center, as well as Dr. Amir Hadanny, the Sagol Center's Chief Medical Research Officer.
In a press release, Professor Efrati explained that their team has been working on hyperbaric research and therapy for many years, looking to develop treatments based on exposing patients to varying concentrations of high-pressure oxygen. One of their achievements was in improving aging people's brain functions. The current study was focused on seeing if the aging process could be slowed down at the cellular level in healthy adults.
What are telomeres?
"Today telomere shortening is considered the 'Holy Grail' of the biology of aging," Professor Efrati elaborated. "Researchers around the world are trying to develop pharmacological and environmental interventions that enable telomere elongation. Our HBOT protocol was able to achieve this, proving that the aging process can in fact be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level."
Dr. Hadanny added that, previously, lifestyle changes and a great deal of exercise were required to achieve some impact on the shortening of telomeres. But in their "pioneering" study, "only three months of HBOT were able to elongate telomeres at rates far beyond any currently available interventions or lifestyle modifications."
While more research is required to expand upon these results, you can check out the promising study published in the journal Aging.
