Clinical Manifestations.

Future clinical trials targeting Alzheimer's disease (AD) on new disease modifying drugs necessitate a paradigm shift towards early identification of individuals at risk. Emerging evidence indicates that subtle alterations in language and speech characteristics may manifest concurrently with the progression of neurodegenerative disorders like AD. These changes manifest as discernible variations, assessable through semantic nuances, word choices, sentiment, grammar usage (linguistic features), and phonetic/acoustic traits (paralinguistic features).

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Changes in speech and language functions have shown to be early symptoms of AD pathology. Recent developments in automatic speech and language processing have opened avenues for objective assessments of these changes. The primary objective of this study is to explore whether speech and language markers extracted from cognitive testing conducted during an automated phone call differ according to underlying AD pathology as measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in preclinical or early stage individuals.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Speech and language impairments are associated with cognitive decline in neurodegenerative dementias, particularly Alzheimer's Disease (AD), where subtle speech changes may precede clinical dementia onset. As clinical trials prioritize early identification for disease-modifying treatments, digital biomarkers for timely screening become imperative. Digital speech-based biomarkers can be employed for screening populations at the earliest AD stages.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Traditional pen-and-paper neuropsychological assessments fail to capture subtle cognitive changes in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Remote and unsupervised digital assessments available on smartphones, tablets, and personal computers may offer a solution to this by increasing the amount and types of data available to researchers and clinicians, while simultaneously improving ecological validity and alleviating patient burden. As these remote and unsupervised digital cognitive assessment tools become more widely available, it is important that they are validated in a systematic way.

"Good childhood": children's perception and evaluation of transnational families.

In public debates, transnational families are portrayed as a deviation from the norm of "good childhood." In Europe, this is emphasized by the term "Euro-orphans," branding parents' (especially mothers') absence as a violation and scandalizing it. Children's voices are rarely heard in public discourse, and although research is now turning its attention to the "stayer children," they and their perspectives on transnational family life remain underrepresented, especially in Europe.