Feng Lei, PhD | National University of Singapore; Bao Zhiming, PhD; Cao Luwen, PhD; Christopher Chen Li Hsain, BMBCh, FRCPE
Competition Sponsor: Ministry of Health and National Research Foundation of Singapore
Awardee Year: 2025
Singapore’s rapidly aging population faces a growing burden of dementia, making early detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and its subtypes a critical public health priority. Current MCI diagnostic methods, such as neuropsychological assessments and neuroimaging, are often resource-intensive and not readily scalable for population-level screening. This research investigates acoustic voice analysis as a novel, cost-effective, and non-invasive approach for MCI detection and subtype differentiation (amnestic and non-amnestic) in older Singaporeans. We hypothesize that subtle, quantifiable changes in specific voice quality parameters reflect underlying neurological and cognitive decline, differentiating individuals with MCI from healthy controls. This differentiation is crucial early identification, and for enabling more personalized intervention tailored to specific cognitive deficits. We did a preliminary acoustic analysis of 100 voice recordings from older Singaporeans with and without MCI, and the results are promising. In collaboration with the Mind Science Centre and the Memory Aging and Cognition Centre (MACC) at NUS, the proposed study employs a combined cross-sectional and longitudinal design. We will use existing voice recordings from MACC’s cohort studies (30% with MCI) and contribute to collect new data, which will enable us to investigate the predictive validity of vocal biomarkers for conversion to dementia and for subtype-specific trajectories. This research aims to identify and validate vocal biomarkers for MCI subtypes and establish the feasibility of voice analysis as a scalable screening tool readily integrated into Singapore’s healthcare system, ultimately enabling earlier intervention, improved disease management, and a reduction in societal and economic impact of dementia in Singapore.