Vocal expression of emotions discriminates dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer's disease.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), the two most common neurodegenerative dementias, both exhibit altered emotional processing. However, how vocal emotional expressions alter in and differ between DLB and AD remains uninvestigated. We collected voice data during story reading from 152 older adults comprising DLB, AD, and cognitively unimpaired (CU) groups and compared their emotional prosody in terms of valence and arousal dimensions. Compared with matched AD and CU participants, DLB patients showed reduced overall emotional expressiveness, as well as lower valence (more negative) and lower arousal (calmer), the extent of which was associated with cognitive impairment and insular atrophy. Classification models using vocal features discriminated DLB from AD and CU with an AUC of 0.83 and 0.78, respectively. Our findings may aid in discriminating DLB patients from AD and CU individuals, serving as a surrogate marker for clinical and neuropathological changes in DLB. Highlights: DLB showed distinctive reduction in vocal expression of emotions.Cognitive impairment was associated with reduced vocal emotional expression in DLB.Insular atrophy was associated with reduced vocal emotional expression in DLB.Emotional expression measures successfully differentiated DLB from AD or controls.

Brain Healthcare Quotient as a Tool for Standardized Approach in Brain Healthcare Interventions.

In addressing the challenge of assessing healthy brain aging across diverse interventions, this study introduces the use of MRI-derived Brain Healthcare Quotients (BHQ) for comprehensive evaluation. We analyzed BHQ changes in 319 participants aged 24-69, who were allocated into dietary (collagen peptide, euglena, matcha, isohumulone, xanthophyll) and physical activity (hand massage with lavender oil, handwriting, office stretching, pink lens, clinical art) groups, alongside a control group, over a month. These interventions were specifically chosen to test the efficacy of varying health strategies on brain health, measured through BHQ indices: GM-BHQ for gray matter volume, and FA-BHQ for white matter integrity. Notably, significant improvements in FA-BHQ were observed in the collagen peptide group, with marginal increases in the hand massage and office stretching groups. These findings highlight BHQ's potential as a sensitive tool for detecting brain health changes, offering evidence that low-intensity, easily implemented interventions can have beneficial effects on brain health. Moreover, BHQ allows for the systematic evaluation of such interventions using standard statistical approaches, suggesting its value in future brain healthcare research.

Distinct eye movement patterns to complex scenes in Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body disease.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Lewy body disease (LBD), the two most common causes of neurodegenerative dementia with similar clinical manifestations, both show impaired visual attention and altered eye movements. However, prior studies have used structured tasks or restricted stimuli, limiting the insights into how eye movements alter and differ between AD and LBD in daily life. Objective: We aimed to comprehensively characterize eye movements of AD and LBD patients on naturalistic complex scenes with broad categories of objects, which would provide a context closer to real-world free viewing, and to identify disease-specific patterns of altered eye movements. Methods: We collected spontaneous viewing behaviors to 200 naturalistic complex scenes from patients with AD or LBD at the prodromal or dementia stage, as well as matched control participants. We then investigated eye movement patterns using a computational visual attention model with high-level image features of object properties and semantic information. Results: Compared with matched controls, we identified two disease-specific altered patterns of eye movements: diminished visual exploration, which differentially correlates with cognitive impairment in AD and with motor impairment in LBD; and reduced gaze allocation to objects, attributed to a weaker attention bias toward high-level image features in AD and attributed to a greater image-center bias in LBD. Conclusion: Our findings may help differentiate AD and LBD patients and comprehend their real-world visual behaviors to mitigate the widespread impact of impaired visual attention on daily activities.

Smartphone app for lifestyle improvement improves brain health and boosts the vitality and cognitive function of healthy middle-aged adults.

INTRODUCTION: The number of smartphone apps for brain training is increasing, and the number of people who are working on brain training is also increasing. However, researchers disagree about the effectiveness of brain training. METHODS: Therefore, in this study, we conducted an intervention test with the participation of 70 healthy middle-aged men and women and measured the effect of smartphone apps on lifestyle improvement using brain healthcare quotient calculated from brain imaging data. RESULTS: As a result, in the intervention group, significant improvements were seen in fractional anisotropy (FA) of the whole brain, corpus callosum, internal capsule, corona radiata, posterior thalamic radiation, external capsule, and superior longitudinal fasciculus. Additionally, in the intervention group, these FA increments correlated with improvements in cognitive function as measured by the trail-making test and vigor as measured by the Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that improving lifestyle habits through smartphone apps can improve brain health and cognitive and emotional performance of healthy middle-aged adults. This is consistent with previous research that suggests that FA integrity in the limbic-thalamo-cortical pathway influences cognitive function and emotion regulation.

Longitudinal reduction in brain volume in patients with schizophrenia and its association with cognitive function.

Establishing a brain biomarker for schizophrenia is strongly desirable not only to support diagnosis by psychiatrists but also to help track the progressive changes in the brain over the course of the illness. A brain morphological signature of schizophrenia was reported in a recent study and is defined by clusters of brain regions with reduced volume in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy individuals. This signature was proven to be effective at differentiating patients with schizophrenia from healthy individuals, suggesting that it is a good candidate brain biomarker of schizophrenia. However, the longitudinal characteristics of this signature have remained unclear. In this study, we examined whether these changes occurred over time and whether they were associated with clinical outcomes. We found a significant change in the brain morphological signature in schizophrenia patients with more brain volume loss than the natural, age-related reduction in healthy individuals, suggesting that this change can capture a progressive morphological change in the brain. We further found a significant association between changes in the brain morphological signature and changes in the full-scale intelligence quotient (IQ). The patients with IQ improvement showed preserved brain morphological signatures, whereas the patients without IQ improvement showed progressive changes in the brain morphological signature, suggesting a link between potential recovery of intellectual abilities and the speed of brain pathology progression. We conclude that the brain morphological signature is a brain biomarker that can be used to evaluate progressive changes in the brain that are associated with cognitive impairment due to schizophrenia.

Continuous inhalation of essential oil increases gray matter volume.

Research into the health benefits of scents is on the rise. However, little is known about the effects of continuous inhalation, such as wearing scents on clothing, on brain structure. Therefore, in this study, an intervention study was conducted on a total of 50 healthy female people, 28 in the intervention group and 22 in the control group, asking them to wear a designated rose scent on their clothes for a month. The effect of continuous inhalation of essential oil on the gray matter of the brain was measured by calculating changes in brain images of participants taken before and after the intervention using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The results showed that the intervention increased the gray matter volume (GMV) of the whole brain and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) subregion. On the other hand, the GMV of the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) did not change. This study is the first to show that continuous scent inhalation changes brain structure.

Nucleus accumbens degeneration in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2: a preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) exhibits mainly cerebellar and oculomotor dysfunctions but also, frequently, cognitive impairment and neuropsychological symptoms. The mechanism of the progression of SCA2 remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate longitudinal structural changes in the brains of SCA2 patients based on atrophy rate. METHODS: The OpenNeuro Dataset ds001378 was used. It comprises the demographic data and two magnetic resonance images each of nine SCA2 patients and 16 healthy controls. All structural images were preprocessed using FreeSurfer software, and each region's bilateral volume was summed. Atrophy rates were calculated based on the concept of symmetrised percent change and compared between SCA2 patients and healthy controls using non-parametric statistics. As post hoc analysis, correlation analysis was performed between infratentorial volume ratio and the accumbens area atrophy rates in SCA2 patients. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between groups for age, gender, and the time between scans. Statistical analysis indicated a significantly larger atrophy rate of the accumbens area in SCA2 patients than in controls. Additionally, the infratentorial volume ratio and accumbens area atrophy rates showed moderate negative correlation. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that nucleus accumbens (NAc) atrophy was significantly accelerated in SCA2 patients. Anatomically, the NAc is densely connected with infratentorial brain regions, so it is reasonable to posit that degeneration propagates from the cerebellum and brainstem to the NAc and other supratentorial areas. Functionally, the NAc is essential for appropriate behaviour, so NAc degeneration might contribute to neuropsychological symptoms in SCA2 patients.

Prediction of Cochlear Implant Effectiveness With Surface-Based Morphometry.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether surface-based morphometry of preoperative whole-brain three-dimensional T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images can predict the clinical outcomes of cochlear implantation. STUDY DESIGN: This was an observational, multicenter study using preoperative MRI data. SETTING: The study was conducted at tertiary care referral centers. PATIENTS: Sixty-four patients with severe to profound hearing loss (≥70 dB bilaterally), who were scheduled for cochlear implant (CI) surgery, were enrolled. The patients included 19 with congenital hearing loss and 45 with acquired hearing loss. INTERVENTIONS: Participants underwent CI surgery. Before surgery, high-resolution three-dimensional T1-weighted brain MRI was performed, and the images were analyzed using FreeSurfer. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was monosyllable audibility under quiet conditions 6 months after surgery. Cortical thickness residuals within 34 regions of interest (ROIs) as per the Desikan-Killiany cortical atlas were calculated based on age and healthy-hearing control regression lines. RESULTS: Rank logistic regression analysis detected significant associations between CI effectiveness and five right hemisphere ROIs and five left hemisphere ROIs. Predictive modeling using the cortical thickness of the right entorhinal cortex and left medial orbitofrontal cortex revealed a significant correlation with speech discrimination ability. This correlation was higher in patients with acquired hearing loss than in those with congenital hearing loss. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative surface-based morphometry could potentially predict CI outcomes and assist in patient selection and clinical decision making. However, further research with larger, more diverse samples is necessary to confirm these findings and determine their generalizability.

Two neurostructural subtypes: results of machine learning on brain images from 4,291 individuals with schizophrenia.

Machine learning can be used to define subtypes of psychiatric conditions based on shared clinical and biological foundations, presenting a crucial step toward establishing biologically based subtypes of mental disorders. With the goal of identifying subtypes of disease progression in schizophrenia, here we analyzed cross-sectional brain structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 4,291 individuals with schizophrenia (1,709 females, age=32.5 years±11.9) and 7,078 healthy controls (3,461 females, age=33.0 years±12.7) pooled across 41 international cohorts from the ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group, non-ENIGMA cohorts and public datasets. Using a machine learning approach known as Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn), we implemented a brain imaging-driven classification that identifies two distinct neurostructural subgroups by mapping the spatial and temporal trajectory of gray matter (GM) loss in schizophrenia. Subgroup 1 (n=2,622) was characterized by an early cortical-predominant loss (ECL) with enlarged striatum, whereas subgroup 2 (n=1,600) displayed an early subcortical-predominant loss (ESL) in the hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, brain stem and striatum. These reconstructed trajectories suggest that the GM volume reduction originates in the Broca's area/adjacent fronto-insular cortex for ECL and in the hippocampus/adjacent medial temporal structures for ESL. With longer disease duration, the ECL subtype exhibited a gradual worsening of negative symptoms and depression/anxiety, and less of a decline in positive symptoms. We confirmed the reproducibility of these imaging-based subtypes across various sample sites, independent of macroeconomic and ethnic factors that differed across these geographic locations, which include Europe, North America and East Asia. These findings underscore the presence of distinct pathobiological foundations underlying schizophrenia. This new imaging-based taxonomy holds the potential to identify a more homogeneous sub-population of individuals with shared neurobiological attributes, thereby suggesting the viability of redefining existing disorder constructs based on biological factors.

Subcortical volumetric alterations in four major psychiatric disorders: a mega-analysis study of 5604 subjects and a volumetric data-driven approach for classification.

Differential diagnosis is sometimes difficult in practical psychiatric settings, in terms of using the current diagnostic system based on presenting symptoms and signs. The creation of a novel diagnostic system using objective biomarkers is expected to take place. Neuroimaging studies and others reported that subcortical brain structures are the hubs for various psycho-behavioral functions, while there are so far no neuroimaging data-driven clinical criteria overcoming limitations of the current diagnostic system, which would reflect cognitive/social functioning. Prior to the main analysis, we conducted a large-scale multisite study of subcortical volumetric and lateralization alterations in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder using T1-weighted images of 5604 subjects (3078 controls and 2526 patients). We demonstrated larger lateral ventricles volume in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, smaller hippocampus volume in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia-specific smaller amygdala, thalamus, and accumbens volumes and larger caudate, putamen, and pallidum volumes. In addition, we observed a leftward alteration of lateralization for pallidum volume specifically in schizophrenia. Moreover, as our main objective, we clustered the 5,604 subjects based on subcortical volumes, and explored whether data-driven clustering results can explain cognitive/social functioning in the subcohorts. We showed a four-biotype classification, namely extremely (Brain Biotype [BB] 1) and moderately smaller limbic regions (BB2), larger basal ganglia (BB3), and normal volumes (BB4), being associated with cognitive/social functioning. Specifically, BB1 and BB2-3 were associated with severe and mild cognitive/social impairment, respectively, while BB4 was characterized by normal cognitive/social functioning. Our results may lead to the future creation of novel biological data-driven psychiatric diagnostic criteria, which may be expected to be useful for prediction or therapeutic selection.

Cerebral cortical structural alteration patterns across four major psychiatric disorders in 5549 individuals.

According to the operational diagnostic criteria, psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are classified based on symptoms. While its cluster of symptoms defines each of these psychiatric disorders, there is also an overlap in symptoms between the disorders. We hypothesized that there are also similarities and differences in cortical structural neuroimaging features among these psychiatric disorders. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed for 5,549 subjects recruited from 14 sites. Effect sizes were determined using a linear regression model within each protocol, and these effect sizes were meta-analyzed. The similarity of the differences in cortical thickness and surface area of each disorder group was calculated using cosine similarity, which was calculated from the effect sizes of each cortical regions. The thinnest cortex was found in SZ, followed by BD and MDD. The cosine similarity values between disorders were 0.943 for SZ and BD, 0.959 for SZ and MDD, and 0.943 for BD and MDD, which indicated that a common pattern of cortical thickness alterations was found among SZ, BD, and MDD. Additionally, a generally smaller cortical surface area was found in SZ and MDD than in BD, and the effect was larger in SZ. The cosine similarity values between disorders were 0.945 for SZ and MDD, 0.867 for SZ and ASD, and 0.811 for MDD and ASD, which indicated a common pattern of cortical surface area alterations among SZ, MDD, and ASD. Patterns of alterations in cortical thickness and surface area were revealed in the four major psychiatric disorders. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a cross-disorder analysis conducted on four major psychiatric disorders. Cross-disorder brain imaging research can help to advance our understanding of the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders and common symptoms.

Posterior cingulate cortex spontaneous activity associated with motor response inhibition in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A resting-state fMRI study.

Recent evidence suggests that broad brain regions, not limited to the fronto-striato-thalamo-cortical circuit, play an important role in motor response inhibition. However, it is still unclear which specific key brain region is responsible for impaired motor response inhibition observed in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We calculated the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and measured response inhibition ability using the stop-signal task in 41 medication-free patients with OCD and 49 healthy control (HC) participants. We explored the brain region that shows different association between the fALFF and the ability of motor response inhibition. Significant differences in fALFF associated with the ability of motor response inhibition were identified in dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). There was a positive correlation between increased fALFF in the dorsal PCC and impaired motor response inhibition in OCD. In the HC group, there was a negative correlation between the two variables. Our results suggest that the magnitude of resting-state blood oxygen level-dependent oscillation of the dorsal PCC is a key brain region for the underlying mechanisms of impaired motor response inhibition in OCD. Future studies should examine whether this characteristic of dorsal PCC affects other large-scale networks responsible for motor response inhibition of OCD.

Association of fear of COVID-19 and resilience with psychological distress among health care workers in hospitals responding to COVID-19: analysis of a cross-sectional study.

Background: It remains unclear how fear of COVID-19 and resilience are related to psychological distress based on occupations among healthcare workers (HCWs) in hospitals treating patients with COVID-19. We conducted a survey on the mental health of HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic to determine the relationship between factors such as fear of COVID-19 and resilience as well as mental distress in each occupation of HCWs. Methods: We conducted a web-based survey among HCWs at seven hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in Japan from December 24, 2020 to March 31, 2021. A total of 634 participants were analyzed, and information regarding their socio-demographic characteristics and employment status was collected. Several psychometric measures were used, including the Kessler's Psychological Distress Scale (K6), the fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), and the Resilience Scale (RS14). Factors related to psychological distress were identified by logistic regression analysis. The association between job title and psychological scales was examined by one-way ANOVA, and t-tests were conducted to examine the association between the FCV-19S and hospital initiatives. Results: It was found that nurses and clerical workers were associated with psychological distress without considering FCV-19S or RS14; in a model that included FCV-19S, FCV-19S was associated with psychological distress, but job title was not; when RS14 was considered, resilience was protective. In terms of occupation, FCV-19S was lower among physicians and higher among nurses and clerical workers, while RS14 was higher among physicians and lower among other occupations. Having access to in-hospital consultation regarding infection control as well as to psychological and emotional support was associated with lower FCV-19S. Conclusion: Based on our findings, we can conclude that the level of mental distress differed by occupation and the differences in the fear of COVID-19 and resilience were important factors. In order to provide mental healthcare for HCWs during a pandemic, it is important to create consultation services that enable employees to discuss their concerns. In addition, it is important to take steps to strengthen the resilience of HCWs in preparation for future disasters.

Gyrification of the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex in first-degree relatives of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Gyrification patterns reflect early neurodevelopment and could be highly heritable. While some discrepant results have been reported, the most consistent finding was that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder showed altered gyrification patterns in the orbitofrontal cortex. Nevertheless, no study has investigated the alterations in gyrification in unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. We measured local gyrification by the FreeSurfer software in 23 unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and 52 healthy control participants. We explored differences in the local gyrification index using vertex-wise whole-brain analysis and a region of interest-based approach in the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. There was no significant difference in the local gyrification index between the 2 groups in the vertex-wise whole-brain analysis. Region of interest analyses showed that, compared with healthy controls, first-degree relatives showed significantly reduced local gyrification index in the left medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. A negative correlation was observed between the reduced local gyrification index in lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the subclinical anxiety scores of first-degree relatives. Our results showed that first-degree relatives of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder had an altered local gyrification index in the orbitofrontal cortex. Especially, reduced local gyrification index in lateral orbitofrontal cortex associated with subclinical anxiety symptom could be a potential neurodevelopmental marker for the illness onset.

Resting state hyperconnectivity of the default mode network in schizophrenia and clinical high-risk state for psychosis.

Disrupted functional connectivity (FC) of the default mode network (DMN) may have a pathophysiological role in schizophrenia. However, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the DMN in schizophrenia patients has shown inconsistent results. It also remains unclear whether individuals with at-risk mental state (ARMS) have an altered DMN connectivity and whether it is related to clinical characteristics. This fMRI study examined resting-state FCs of the DMN and its relevance to clinical/cognitive variables in 41 schizophrenia patients, 31 ARMS individuals, and 65 healthy controls. Compared with controls, schizophrenia patients had significantly increased FCs within the DMN and between the DMN and diverse cortical areas, whereas ARMS patients had increased FCs only between the DMN and occipital cortex. FC of the lateral parietal cortex with superior temporal gyrus was positively correlated with negative symptoms in schizophrenia, whereas FC of that with interparietal sulcus was negatively correlated with general cognitive impairment in ARMS. Our findings suggest that increased FCs between the DMN and visual network commonly seen in schizophrenia and ARMS subjects may reflect a network-level disturbance representing a general vulnerability to psychosis. In addition, FC changes related to the lateral parietal cortex may underpin clinical characteristics of ARMS and schizophrenia subjects.

Functional connectivity between pre-supplementary motor area and inferior parietal lobule associated with impaired motor response inhibition in first-degree relatives of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Previous studies have suggested that specific fronto-striatal circuits are associated with impaired motor response inhibition in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and their relatives. However, no study has investigated the underlying resting-state network associated with motor response inhibition in the unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with OCD. We measured motor response inhibition using stop-signal task, and obtained resting-state fMRI in 23 first-degree relatives and 52 healthy control participants. We explored the group differences in the functional network from seed regions-of-interest (ROIs) associated with motor response inhibition abilities. We used the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) as seed-ROIs. A significant group difference was observed in functional connectivity between the pre-SMA and inferior parietal lobule. In the relative group, reduced functional connectivity between these areas was associated with a longer stop-signal reaction time. Additionally, relatives showed significantly greater functional connectivity between the IFG and SMA, precentral, and postcentral areas. Our results could provide new insights into the resting-state neural activity of the pre-SMA underlying impaired motor response inhibition of unaffected first-degree relatives. In addition, our results suggested that relatives have an altered connectivity of the sensorimotor region, similar to that of patients with OCD shown in previous literature.

Relationship between hippocampal subfields volume and balance function in healthy older adults.

BACKGROUND: The volume of the hippocampus and its subfields is known to be affected by aging, disease, and physical training. In regard to training, the differential effects of aerobic exercise and dance training on the subfield volume suggest that balance function may be involved. However, the relationship between balance function and the volume of the hippocampus and its subfields remains unclear. METHODS: Subjects were 30 cognitively intact individuals. They underwent balance tests, cognitive tests and structural MRI scans. The balance index measured was the index of postural stability (IPS) under a visual block condition and/or a proprioception block condition. MR images acquired using a 3-tesla system and three-dimensional T1-weighted images were segmented in the hippocampal subfield with Freesurfer 6.0.0. The relationship between the IPS and hippocampal volume was evaluated. RESULTS: A positive correlation was observed only between the IPS closed eyes/soft surface condition and whole hippocampal volume ratio. In the subfields, positive correlations were found between the IPS and molecular layer of the hippocampus, granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus (GC-ML-DG), and cornu ammonis areas (CA)3 and CA4. These correlations were stronger under the closed eyes/soft surface condition than under the other conditions. CONCLUSIONS: A correlation between balance function and the volume of the hippocampus and subfields was found in healthy elderly subjects. The balance function may be involved in the volume of the whole hippocampus and specific subfields. The IPS closed eyes/soft surface condition is considered to reflect vestibular function. Thus, IPS may be useful in evaluations of the relationship between the vestibular system function via the hippocampus and balance.

Screening of Mild Cognitive Impairment Through Conversations With Humanoid Robots: Exploratory Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: The rising number of patients with dementia has become a serious social problem worldwide. To help detect dementia at an early stage, many studies have been conducted to detect signs of cognitive decline by prosodic and acoustic features. However, many of these methods are not suitable for everyday use as they focus on cognitive function or conversational speech during the examinations. In contrast, conversational humanoid robots are expected to be used in the care of older people to help reduce the work of care and monitoring through interaction. OBJECTIVE: This study focuses on early detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) through conversations between patients and humanoid robots without a specific examination, such as neuropsychological examination. METHODS: This was an exploratory study involving patients with MCI and cognitively normal (CN) older people. We collected the conversation data during neuropsychological examination (Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]) and everyday conversation between a humanoid robot and 94 participants (n=47, 50%, patients with MCI and n=47, 50%, CN older people). We extracted 17 types of prosodic and acoustic features, such as the duration of response time and jitter, from these conversations. We conducted a statistical significance test for each feature to clarify the speech features that are useful when classifying people into CN people and patients with MCI. Furthermore, we conducted an automatic classification experiment using a support vector machine (SVM) to verify whether it is possible to automatically classify these 2 groups by the features identified in the statistical significance test. RESULTS: We obtained significant differences in 5 (29%) of 17 types of features obtained from the MMSE conversational speech. The duration of response time, the duration of silent periods, and the proportion of silent periods showed a significant difference (P<.001) and met the reference value r=0.1 (small) of the effect size. Additionally, filler periods (P<.01) and the proportion of fillers (P=.02) showed a significant difference; however, these did not meet the reference value of the effect size. In contrast, we obtained significant differences in 16 (94%) of 17 types of features obtained from the everyday conversations with the humanoid robot. The duration of response time, the duration of speech periods, jitter (local, relative average perturbation [rap], 5-point period perturbation quotient [ppq5], difference of difference of periods [ddp]), shimmer (local, amplitude perturbation quotient [apq]3, apq5, apq11, average absolute differences between the amplitudes of consecutive periods [dda]), and F0cov (coefficient of variation of the fundamental frequency) showed a significant difference (P<.001). In addition, the duration of response time, the duration of silent periods, the filler period, and the proportion of fillers showed significant differences (P<.05). However, only jitter (local) met the reference value r=0.1 (small) of the effect size. In the automatic classification experiment for the classification of participants into CN and MCI groups, the results showed 66.0% accuracy in the MMSE conversational speech and 68.1% accuracy in everyday conversations with the humanoid robot. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the possibility of early and simple screening for patients with MCI using prosodic and acoustic features from everyday conversations with a humanoid robot with the same level of accuracy as the MMSE.

Association Study Between White Matter Microstructure and Intelligence Decline in Schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia can exhibit intelligence decline, which is an important element of cognitive impairment. Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia have altered gray matter structures and functional connectivity associated with intelligence decline defined by a difference between premorbid and current intelligence quotients (IQs). However, it has remained unclear whether white matter microstructures are related to intelligence decline. In the present study, the indices of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) obtained from 138 patients with schizophrenia and 554 healthy controls were analyzed. The patients were classified into three subgroups based on intelligence decline: deteriorated (94 patients), preserved (42 patients), and compromised IQ (2 patients) groups. Given that the DTI of each subject was acquired using either one of two different MRI scanners, we analyzed DTI indices separately for each scanner group. In the comparison between the deteriorated IQ group and the healthy controls, differences in some DTI indices were noted in three regions of interest irrespective of the MRI scanners, whereas differences in only one region of interest were noted between the preserved IQ group and the healthy controls. However, the comparisons between the deteriorated and preserved IQ groups did not show any reproducible differences. Together with the previous findings, it is thought that gray matter structures and functional connectivity are more promising as markers of intelligence decline in schizophrenia than white matter microstructures.

Satisfaction with web-based courses on clinical practice guidelines for psychiatrists: Findings from the "Effectiveness of Guidelines for Dissemination and Education in Psychiatric Treatment (EGUIDE)" project.

To disseminate, educate, and validate psychiatric clinical practice guidelines, the Effectiveness of Guidelines for Dissemination and Education in Psychiatric Treatment (EGUIDE) project was launched in 2016. In this study, we investigated whether the web-based courses offered by this project would be as effective as the face-to-face courses. We analyzed and compared survey answers about overall participant satisfaction with the course and answers regarding clinical knowledge of schizophrenia and major depressive disorder between 170 participants who took the web-based courses in 2020 and 689 participants who took the face-to-face courses from 2016 to 2019. The web-based course participants completed the survey questions about satisfaction with the web-based courses. The web-based courses were conducted using a combination of web services to make it as similar as possible to the face-to-face courses. The degree of satisfaction assessed by the general evaluation of the web-based courses was higher than what was expected from the face-to-face courses. The degree of satisfaction was similar for the courses on schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. In addition, there were no significant differences in overall satisfaction and clinical knowledge between web-based and face-to-face courses. In conclusion, the web-based courses on clinical practice guidelines provided by the EGUIDE project were rated as more satisfying than the face-to-face course that the participants expected to take and no differences in the effectiveness of either course. The results suggest that, after the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be possible to disseminate this educational material more widely by adopting web-based courses additionally face-to-face courses.