GENFI Mindstrong study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
GENFI Mindstrong: : a study to assess the utility of smartphones in measuring aspects of cognition
IRAS ID
259434
Contact name
Jonathan Rohrer
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
The ubiquitous use of smartphones gives us the opportunity to collect passive, objective data relevant to mood, anxiety, and cognition in real life scenarios. Several studies have demonstrated the feasibility of correlating these data with changes in cognition as measured by standard neuropsychometry in psychiatric patients, but this approach has yet to be demonstrated in individuals with a diagnosis of dementia. This study is an investigation of passive human-device interactions using a smartphone application developed by Mindstrong Health, known as Mindstrong. These usage patterns represent a moment-by-moment measurement of human behaviour and interactions with a real life environment, which Mindstrong Health have used to create objective measures of cognition. The application will be used only for the purpose of measuring daily cognitive function from smartphone data acquired passively from day-to-day smartphone use. Therefore, analysing the way an individual normally uses their phone may be able to indicate at what stage cognition is becoming abnormal. The subject group will consist of individuals diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) who have a known mutation (symptomatic), or first-degree relatives who therefore have a 50% chance of having a mutation (presymptomatic individuals) and are considered “at-risk”. The group of presymptomatic individuals will include both mutation carriers and those negative for the mutation who will serve as a control group. Subjects will be recruited from the GENFI study, where participants are assessed longitudinally with a set of clinical, neuropsychiatric, cognitive, imaging, and biosample assessments.Summary of Results
: Now the study has finished, we are currently analysing all of the data collected. However, some early findings from the Longevity smartphone app are already showing interesting results. This app works in the background on participants’ phones and measures how quickly they move from one key to another when typing. These small reaction times can give us clues about processing speed, which is an important part of thinking and cognition.
We looked at data from 60 people who carry a genetic mutation that can cause frontotemporal dementia (FTD), as well as people from the same families who do not carry the mutation. Early results show that even before symptoms appear, there are subtle differences in reaction times between these two groups. Around the age of 37, the results become clearer, with the reaction times of carriers and non-carriers beginning to separate.
These findings are exciting because they suggest that everyday smartphone data, collected passively and without the need for formal testing, could help detect early changes in thinking skills many years before symptoms of FTD develop.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
20/ES/0079
Date of REC Opinion
24 Sep 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion