Researchers have combined Global Positioning System-based (GPS) with AI to detect early-onset Alzheimer’s in drivers, revealing a high level of accuracy in diagnosis.
The DRIVES Study at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Catherine Roe and Ganesh Babulal and funded by the National Institute on Aging.
They proposed that those who had been diagnosed would make different decisions when driving in comparison to those without the disease. Alzheimer drivers may drive for shorter periods of time, stick to commonly used routes, travel less at night and make abrupt changes to their driving.
AI has the advantage of being able to read from large amounts of cases and diagnoses without bias or judgement. It is thought that this could lead to more correct diagnosis.
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The study
Researchers selected 139 people in Missouri US to have a GPS unit installed in their cars for one year. The data collected was fed into a custom AI system designed using Python to assess patterns in driving.
Half of the selected individuals had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s while the other half were healthy. Those in the positive group had been tested using medical methods such as spinal fluid tests and PET scans.
Driving results
The results of the experiment showed a detection accuracy of 82 per cent. The model was more accurate still (90%) when it also added in the results of a genetic test for Alzheimer’s known as apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotyping that indicates whether you may have an inherited risk for the disease.s. It was noted that all participants were over the age of 65 which means the study may not work on younger people who do not have symptoms.
Larger, randomised studies are needed to show a definitive link between the detected driving behaviours and preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.
The US National Institute on Aging says family members might eventually notice that their loved one is taking longer to complete a simple trip, has been driving more erratically, or gets muddled over which pedal is which, for example.
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