Cognitive Status of People with Dementia and its Relation to the Performance in Touch and Tangible Tasks

BACKGROUND: Previous research explores the relationship between the cognitive status of people with dementia (PwD) and their performance in complex, domain-specific interaction tasks. However, these activities and their sophisticated instructions are challenging for PwD, potentially biasing performance metrics. This study aims to answer whether the cognitive status of PwD is related to their performance in simple touch and tangible tasks disassociated from a domain. METHODS: This study involved 7 formal caregivers and data from 21 PwD corresponding to completion times of interaction tasks. Relationships between completion times and the cognitive status of PwD were explored using Spearman's rank correlation, mutual information, gini importance, permutation importance, and a principal component analysis (PCA) visualization. RESULTS: Completion times of drag & drop, grasp, and tap interaction tasks have a strong negative monotonic association with the MMSE score (Bonferroni-corrected p-value < 0.05). The most relevant gestures were drag & drop, tap, and grasp. The PCA visualization allowed formal caregivers to detect relationships between patients' performance and their MMSE scores (p-value < 0.05). DISCUSSION: The cognitive status of PwD is related to their performance in simple interaction tasks disassociated from a domain. As the MMSE score decreases, task completion times increase. In addition, the PCA visualization was considered useful to inform decision-making. CONCLUSION: This work provides the foundation for technology-enhanced cognitive activities supported by touch and tangible gestures that can be used to determine the cognitive status of PwD.