Smartphone, voice, and digital‑pen tests combined with an 8‑point lifestyle score to spot early Alzheimer risk
Life's Essential 8, Digital Cognitive Markers, and Alzheimer's Disease Risk
This project uses brief digital tests (voice, digital pen, and phone tasks) together with an 8‑item lifestyle score to find early memory changes in people at risk for Alzheimer's.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Boston University Medical Campus NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11332933 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would be part of work that links everyday digital tests—like drawing with a digital pen, speaking into your phone, and smartphone cognitive tasks—to your Life's Essential 8 lifestyle score and to standard memory tests, brain scans, and blood measures collected over years. The team will analyze data from thousands of Framingham Heart Study participants across generations to see how changes in diet, activity, sleep, blood pressure, and other LE8 items relate to subtle cognitive shifts captured by digital markers. Most digital measures are collected remotely via smartphones or wearables so thinking changes can be tracked often in real life, while some people have in‑person exams and MRIs in the Boston area. The goal is to find which easy digital signals best flag early decline tied to modifiable risks so lifestyle actions or trials can start earlier.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Older adults or middle‑aged people concerned about Alzheimer's risk—especially those with vascular or lifestyle risk factors and who can use a smartphone or digital pen—are the ideal candidates.
Not a fit: People without access to a smartphone or digital tools, or those with advanced dementia where early detection is no longer helpful, are less likely to benefit.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could let clinicians and patients detect very early cognitive changes using low‑cost digital tests tied to lifestyle risks, enabling earlier lifestyle changes or trial enrollment.
How similar studies have performed: Related digital cognitive tests have shown promise in smaller or short‑term studies, but linking long‑term lifestyle risk scores to repeated digital markers in a large cohort is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
Boston, United States
- Boston University Medical Campus — Boston, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Liu, Chunyu — Boston University Medical Campus
- Study coordinator: Liu, Chunyu
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.