Pause duration analysis is a common feature in the study of discourse in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) since this patient group has shown a consistent trend for longer pauses in comparison to healthy controls. This speech feature may also be helpful for early detection; however, studies involving patients at the pre-clinical, high-risk phase of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) have yielded varying results. Here we use Quantitative Linguistics to establish a new early marker for Alzheimer’s disease: speech pause distribution.
Speech pause distribution as an early marker for Alzheimer’s disease – ScienceDirect
Highlights
- Pause duration distribution differentiates two groups with MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) at risk of AD (Alzheimer’s Disease).
- Lognormal distribution explains distribution of pause duration; differentiates clinical groups.
- Principled statistical framework for estimation of optimal minimal pause duration threshold.
- Characterization of probability density distribution of speech pause durations in MCI and AD.
