Measuring Language Skills In Order To Diagnose Disease

Language Could Diagnose Parkinson's, ALS and Schizophrenia before Lab Tests

Several recent studies reveal what you say—and how you say it—provide clues about disease

Anne Pycha | February 1, 2016

Future doctors may ask us to say more than “Ahhh.” Several groups of neuroscientists, psychiatrists and computer scientists are now investigating the extent to which patients' language use can provide diagnostic clues—before a single laboratory test is run. Increased computing power and new methods to measure the relation between behavior and brain activity have advanced such efforts. And although tests based on the spoken word may not be as accurate as gene sequencing or MRI scans, for diseases lacking clear biological indicators, language mining could help fill the gap.

New study spots patterns in President Reagan's White House talks that may have been a red flag for Alzheimer's. April 1, 2015. Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/changes-in-president-reagans-speech-early-sign-of-alzheimers-2015-4

<more at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/language-could-diagnose-parkinson-s-als-and-schizophrenia-before-lab-tests/; related links: http://www.healthline.com/health/speech-disorders#Overview1 (Speech Disorders. November 24, 2015) and http://www.nysslha.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3519 (Speech Disorders & Parkinson's Disease)>