# Phase 2 Development of a Spoken Language Biomarker of Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease

> **NIH NIH R21** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $158,059

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Currently, there are limited dementia treatments for the 40-80% of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) at
risk for developing dementia. Difficulties monitoring early cognitive impairments outside of the clinic, and
concomitant delays in treatment initiation, are major barriers to both the accurate diagnosis of and the
development of interventions for cognitive impairments in PD. A biomarker is any characteristic that can be
measured objectively and indicates pathogenic processes and/or treatment responses. Biomarkers can take a
number of forms including observable behaviors. Spoken discourse is sensitive to early cognitive changes in
dementia, making it a suitable biomarker target. Yet, to date no study has leveraged the sensitivity of spoken
discourse for developing a biomarker of cognitive impairment in PD. The long-term objective of this research is
to improve the early and accurate diagnosis of individuals with PD at risk for developing dementia, using a
spoken discourse biomarker. Once the biomarker is systematically validated, computational approaches can
be used to automate the biomarker analysis. There
the
lack
cognitive
and
Purpose
Phase Aim 1 will rigorously characterize the spoken discourse, cognitive,
and motor speech profiles of 129 healthy adults and individuals with PD (with and without cognitive
impairment) using a theoretically-grounded model of discourse production. Using methods refined in our pilot
studies, Aim 2 will develop and evaluate the classification accuracy of an optimally weighted discourse
classification function. Aim 2 will yield a single discourse measure that is comprised of multiple, optimally
weighted individual measures. Individual discourse measure values can be `plugged' into the classification
function to yield a score, which when compared to a cut-off value, will determine whether the discourse sample
are two major barriers toward achieving this objective: 1)
of a rigorous, sufficiently-powered, hand-coded dataset of PD spoken discourse (with and without
impairment) and 2) the absence of a spoken discourse biomarker that has been rigorously developed
tested on a meticulously-characterized cohort of healthy adults and individuals with PD. Using the Fit-for-
biomarker framework, the goal of the proposed research is to eliminate these barriers by completing a
2 spoken discourse biomarker study.
was produced by a person with PD who has cognitive impairment. The
use
clinically-grounded,
developed
longitudinal
and
phenotypes
developing
proposed research is innovative in its
of an evidence-informed biomarker framework to leverage the sensitivity of spoken discourse to develop a
robust biomarker of cognitive impairmen in PD. The resultant biomarker will be further
 in a future Phase 3 study where the predictive accuracy of the biomarker will be tested in a
dataset. Immediately, the proposed project significantly advances research and clinical care in PD,
neurodegenerative disorders m...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10148754
- **Project number:** 5R21DC017255-03
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Angela Christine Roberts
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $158,059
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10148754

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10148754, Phase 2 Development of a Spoken Language Biomarker of Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease (5R21DC017255-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10148754. Licensed CC0.

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