Cognitive decline: the warning sign in writing. How to find it

Understanding and addressing cognitive decline that occurs in older people as they age is an aspect that scholars have been working on for years. A recent study has drawn attention to way of writing to identify the degree of cognitive decline you are experiencing.

The link between cognitive decline and writing

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The threshold of At 40 the brain begins to show small signs of failureinitially imperceptible or almost imperceptible and then gradually more and more evident. A physiological process that does not necessarily lead to dementia or neurodegenerative diseases, is comparable to those small defects of a car, of a household appliance over time. Just as a smartphone no longer has the performance it once did after a few years, the same happens with the body and there can therefore be defects in short-term memory and multitasking capabilities. Regular sleep, nutrition, continuous stimulation, physical activity help counteract this decline but it is also important to identify it early and understand its extent.

the study

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A study ofUniversity of Évora in Portugalpublished on Frontiers in Human Neurosciencehosted by Ana Rita Matias, showed how the writing speed and the way in which the pen strokes are organized can be used as early indicators of cognitive decline among older adults. The researchers noted that older people with cognitive impairment show distinct patterns in writing movements, especially during complex tasks such as dictating sentences. The teacher explained how writing is a sort of window into the brainwhich is why studying it can help understand the level of cognitive impairment in the elderly.

There research was conducted on 58 people between 62 and 92 years old residents of some nursing homes, of which 38 with an already acquired diagnosis of cognitive impairment. The participants did some exercises on penal control and writing tests with a digital pen connected to an electronic tablet in order to evaluate the speed, the number of strokes, the size of the characters and the execution times. The simplest tasks, such as making lines or dots, gave no indications, on the contrary the dictation tests led to more evident results. The people diagnosed with cognitive impairment showed significant changes in writing initiation time, number of strokes, execution duration and vertical size of letters, all characteristics that are linked to brain functions such as working memory, planning and executive control.

a look towards the future

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Identifying these as reference parametersin the future it could thus be easier for care centers and doctors to identify signs of cognitive decline. Of course, the authors also highlighted how necessary they are further insights and an expansion of the subjects to confirm thereliability of the methodalso evaluating the impact of other factors such as the use of drugs or the neurological conditions of the subjects.