Being able to recognize a health problem as soon as possible is fundamental in medicine. Early diagnosis offers opportunities for treatment and resolution of different pathological conditions. But there are also other aspects to consider, which go beyond the simple identification of alterations that are being created in the psyche or nervous system and do not determine clear pictures: in this sense, emotional and cognitive fluctuations can represent alarm signals that must be caught, even if they are often below threshold. Or rather: maybe they don’t recognize us with the classic clinical signs, but they can be recognized by wearable devices, capable of recording data that can then be interpreted following targeted analysis by Artificial Intelligence.
This cocktail capable of protecting the health of the nervous system and psyche between devices and AI is proposed by research conducted by experts at the University of Geneva. The study was published on NPJ Digital Medicine.
We start with the healthy ones
Psycho-neurological well-being, which includes both cognitive and emotional functions, is one of the major public health challenges of the 21st century. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one in three people worldwide suffer from neurological disorders such as stroke, epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease, while more than one in two people will experience a mental disorder, including depression, anxiety disorders or schizophrenia, at some point in their lives. As the population ages, these numbers continue to increase.
In this sense, scholars monitored some participants who wore connected devices and used artificial intelligence to analyze data such as heart rate, physical activity, sleep and air pollution. And they have shown that connected devices can accurately predict emotional and cognitive fluctuations, opening new avenues for early detection of changes in brain health. It should be said that even in healthy adults, brain health fluctuates over time, reflecting interactions between multiple factors, including environmental influences and individual lifestyle habits. This is why analyzing daily or weekly changes in cognitive and emotional functioning is essential to enable proactive and personalized prevention strategies.
The apps reveal what is happening
Scientists at the University of Geneva have been trying to determine whether wearable and mobile technologies can be used to monitor brain health continuously and non-invasively. 88 volunteers aged between 45 and 77 were equipped with a dedicated smartphone app and a smartwatch.
For ten months, these devices collected “passive” data – without any intervention or changes in the participants’ daily habits – including heart rate, physical activity, sleep patterns, as well as weather conditions and air pollution levels. In total, 21 indicators were analyzed. Every three months, participants also provided “active” data by filling out questionnaires about their emotional state and undergoing cognitive performance tests. Once data collection was complete, passive data was analyzed using the artificial intelligence developed within the project.
“The goal was to determine whether artificial intelligence could predict fluctuations in participants’ cognitive and emotional health based on this data”
Igor Matias, main author of the study, comments in a note from the university.
The AI-based predictions were then compared with the results of the questionnaires and tests.
“On average, the error rate was only 12.5%, opening up new possibilities for using connected devices in the early diagnosis of abnormalities or changes in brain health”
the expert says. It should also be said that the psyche can be assessed with greater precision than what is observed for the nervous system. In fact, emotional states were those most accurately predicted by artificial intelligence, with error rates generally ranging between 5% and 10%. Cognitive states, in contrast, were predicted less accurately, with error rates between 10% and 20%.
In other words, AI is better at predicting responses to emotional questionnaires than cognitive tests. Regarding the relevance of passive indicators, air pollution, weather conditions, daily heart rate, and sleep variability emerged as the most informative factors for cognition. Regarding emotional states, the most influential factors were mainly weather, sleep variability and heart rate during sleep.
