Development of Neurocognitive Eye Tracking for Rapid Screening of Mild Cognitive Impairment

项目摘要 阿尔茨海默病（AD）影响美国估计580万成年人，到2030年，这一数字是 预计将增加近45%，达到840万，如果没有新的治疗或干预措施，到2050年， 在美国，超过1380万老年人患有阿尔茨海默氏症（阿尔茨海默氏症协会，2019）。AD 与一系列神经认知体征和症状相关，导致显著的发病率， 死亡率，以及缺乏现成的神经认知能力下降筛查，导致大多数人 痴呆症病例在疾病变得明显时被发现和诊断， 退化性疾病的各个阶段，并使医疗保健系统负担额外的费用。我们的第一阶段SBIR 项目将开发新的视力测量（即，基于眼动的）技术进行功能评估， 神经回路，可用作健康衰老期间的监测生物标志物，并监测健康衰老的进展。 老年、轻度认知障碍（MCI）和AD。 MCI和AD的改进评估的临床意义和市场需求是由三个主要因素确定的。 点首先，也是最重要的，大量老年人患有未被发现的痴呆症（斯滕贝格等 例如，只有16%的老年人每年接受认知筛查（阿尔茨海默氏症 协会，2019年），表明需要新的技术，方法和技术。第二， 用于AD的有效药物的开发受到过时的主观结果测量的阻碍（Mehta等， 2017年）的报告。第三，需要监测生物标志物以评估生活方式干预的效果（Kivipelto等人，2018年） 和其它可改变的痴呆风险因素（利文斯顿等人，2017年）。总之，这些差距、限制和 中枢神经系统（CNS）的新生物标志物的开发是必要的， 功能 我们的团队将开发一系列基于眼球运动的测试，以适应特定的认知障碍。 这是MCI和AD中出现的问题，将使用neuroFit ONE视力测量研发平台实施。我们将 我还使用neuroFit ONE原型设计了一种新的眼动跟踪计算架构， 适用于不同的患者人群，适用于整合到消费电子设备中。我们 我们的目标是开发一套适合医疗和消费者用途：高灵敏度 用于临床的医疗设备和用于在电子设备中分发的消费级解决方案（例如， 虚拟现实耳机）。

Project Summary Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) affects an estimated 5.8 million adults in the U.S. By 2030 this number is expected to increase almost 45% to 8.4 million and without new treatment or interventions, by 2050 there will be more than 13.8 million seniors living with Alzheimer’s dementia in the U.S. (Alzheimer's Association, 2019). AD is associated with a spectrum of neurocognitive signs and symptoms that lead to significant morbidity and mortality, and the lack of readily-available screening for neurocognitive decline has led to a situation where most dementia cases are detected and diagnosed when the disease becomes overt, adding risk to patients in early stages of degenerative disease and burdening the healthcare system with additional costs. Our Phase I SBIR project will develop novel oculometric (i.e., eye-movement-based) technologies for functional assessment of neural circuits, useful as a monitoring biomarker during healthy aging and to the monitor progression of healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. The clinical significance and market need for improved assessment of MCI and AD is established by three main points. First, and most importantly, a large number of seniors are living with undetected dementia (Sternberg et al., 2000) and only sixteen percent of seniors undergo cognitive screening on a yearly basis (Alzheimer's Association, 2019) indicating a need for new techniques, methods, and technologies. Second, progress in development of effective drugs for AD is hindered by outdated, subjective outcome measures (Mehta et al., 2017). Third, monitoring biomarkers are needed to assess effects of lifestyle interventions (Kivipelto et al., 2018) and other modifiable risk factors for dementia (Livingston et al., 2017). Together, these gaps, limitations, and encouraging possibilities necessitate the development of novel biomarkers of central nervous system (CNS) function. Our team will develop a battery of eye-movement-based tests tuned to the specific cognitive impairments that arise in MCI and AD, to be implemented using the neuroFit ONE oculometric R&D platform. We will also use neuroFit ONE to prototype a novel computational architecture for eye-tracking appropriate for use with diverse patient populations, suitable for incorporation into consumer electronic devices. Our goal is to develop a suite of oculometric tools suitable for medical and consumer use: high-sensitivity medical devices for use in the clinic and a consumer-grade solution for distribution in electronic devices (e.g., virtual reality headsets).