Cognitive-impairment

Digital therapeutics pioneer Akili Interactive Labs goes public, raising $150M+; trades down 49% first day

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Akili Inter­ac­tive is the lat­est com­pa­ny to go pub­lic via SPAC deal (Boston Busi­ness Journal):

Boston’s Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs Inc. is the lat­est Mass­a­chu­setts-based com­pa­ny to go pub­lic after com­plet­ing a reverse merg­er — in a year of mar­ket tur­moil that saw few local firms pass­ing the thresh­old between pri­vate and pub­lic status.

Shares of Akili start­ed trad­ing on Mon­day on the Nas­daq Cap­i­tal Mar­ket under the new tick­er sym­bol “AKLI” after the com­pa­ny com­plet­ed its pre­vi­ous­ly announced reverse merg­er with Social Cap­i­tal Suvret­ta Hold­ings Corp. I (Nas­daq: DNAA), a spe­cial pur­pose acqui­si­tion com­pa­ny, or SPAC. [Read more…] about Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics pio­neer Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs goes pub­lic, rais­ing $150M+; trades down 49% first day

Deep learning model built on neuroimaging data identifies “Brain Age Gaps” as markers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

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Brain Age Gap is a Com­pos­ite Bio­mark­er for Demen­tia Pathol­o­gy or Sever­i­ty (GEN):

Mayo Clin­ic sci­en­tists have devel­oped a com­pu­ta­tion­al mod­el that pre­dicts brain age using a large col­lec­tion of neu­roimag­ing data obtained using FDG-PET (flu­o­rodeoxyglu­cose positron emis­sion tomog­ra­phy) and struc­tur­al MRI (mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing). The deep learn­ing-based mod­el tests the rela­tion­ship between brain age gaps in var­i­ous forms of demen­tia, includ­ing mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (MCI), Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD), fron­totem­po­ral demen­tia (FTD), and Lewy body demen­tia (LBD), as well as in nor­mal brains.

[Read more…] about Deep learn­ing mod­el built on neu­roimag­ing data iden­ti­fies “Brain Age Gaps” as mark­ers of Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD)

New book provides practical guidance for women (and men) to rebalance our lifestyles and build Cognitive Reserve

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On one of our “walk and talks” around the lush trails of Rock Creek Park in DC sur­round­ed by bik­ers, run­ners, cars and the occa­sion­al deer, Wendy and Lisa talked about aging. Wendy’s moth­er, who had her chil­dren in her ear­ly 20s, was still join­ing the family’s gru­el­ing sum­mer hikes with her chil­dren and nine grand­chil­dren well into her 60s. Wendy mused about how much old­er she would be when their kids could have their own kids. It dawned on her that her health was not just a here and now issue, but an invest­ment in that future. We agreed to help each oth­er cul­ti­vate the habits and make time to build strength as well as reserves, both phys­i­cal and men­tal, for the long-term. Their goal: to enjoy being active in their 40s and 50s while also lay­ing the ground­work to con­tin­ue being active into their 60s, 70s, and beyond. [Read more…] about New book pro­vides prac­ti­cal guid­ance for women (and men) to rebal­ance our lifestyles and build Cog­ni­tive Reserve

Geisinger and Eisai to test real-world validity of AI-powered Passive Digital Marker (PDM) in detecting early cognitive impairment and dementia

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Research col­lab­o­ra­tion will test nov­el algorithm’s effec­tive­ness on Geisinger data (press release):

Geisinger and Eisai Inc. today announced a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort to study the poten­tial effec­tive­ness of an arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) tool in the detec­tion of cog­ni­tive impair­ment that could iden­ti­fy demen­tias, includ­ing Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD). If effec­tive, the AI tool could poten­tial­ly be devel­oped to sup­port the ear­ly detec­tion and stag­ing of cog­ni­tive impair­ment and demen­tia, lead­ing to appro­pri­ate addi­tion­al test­ing for the clin­i­cal, bio­log­i­cal diag­no­sis and treat­ment of demen­tias such as AD. [Read more…] about Geisinger and Eisai to test real-world valid­i­ty of AI-pow­ered Pas­sive Dig­i­tal Mark­er (PDM) in detect­ing ear­ly cog­ni­tive impair­ment and dementia

Study: Education and lifestyle helped over a million older Americans avoid serious cognitive problems in 2017

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Study: More U.S. seniors, espe­cial­ly women, retain­ing health brains (UPI):

The per­cent­age of old­er Amer­i­cans report­ing seri­ous prob­lems with mem­o­ry and think­ing has declined in recent years — and high­er edu­ca­tion lev­els may be part of the rea­son, a new study finds. [Read more…] about Study: Edu­ca­tion and lifestyle helped over a mil­lion old­er Amer­i­cans avoid seri­ous cog­ni­tive prob­lems in 2017

Debate: What is the role of financial advisors and platforms in detecting and addressing cognitive decline among older clients?

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Baby Boomers’ Biggest Finan­cial Risk: Cog­ni­tive Decline (The Wall Street Journal):

For baby boomers who man­age their own nest eggs, a risk is loom­ing that has noth­ing to do with stock prices or inter­est rates.

The risk is cog­ni­tive decline, which can rob them of their judg­ment, often with­out much warn­ing. One big mistake—or a series of small­er ones—can go unno­ticed by loved ones, and poten­tial­ly rav­age a life­time of hard-earned sav­ings. [Read more…] about Debate: What is the role of finan­cial advi­sors and plat­forms in detect­ing and address­ing cog­ni­tive decline among old­er clients?