Discriminatory power of home-based functional neurophysiology to characterize cognitive decline in participants with ALS/FTD
Project Description: The purpose of this project was to evaluate the utility of a home based EEG testing kit against standard in-person neuropsychological testing as a potential for another way of tracking the cognitive status of people living with ALS over time.
Project Objective: Clinicians and therapy developers require better tools to detect and track the progress of FTD (fronto-temporal dementia) and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The platform used in this study has been used in a variety of field studies and clinical trials with healthy participants and neurodegenerative patients. Our objective is to demonstrate the utility of this type of device in FTD or ALS, in the context of the overall objective of PRECISION ALS. This project will contribute to the aim of developing new quantitative markers of cognitive change in ALS and related conditions (e.g. FTD). The work will also support future positive decisions in favour of this new technology for therapy developers and other clinical trial sponsors who have expressed an interest in remote quantitative monitoring of clinical symptoms.
Project Status: Complete. The data have been successfully collected on this project across people with ALS, FTD and healthy controls. Analysis and dissemination is ongoing with the following scientific paper currently under review: “Longitudinal cognitive assessment using the Cumulus NeuLogiq Platform in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Dementia”.
The findings suggest that the Cumulus platform is feasible and usable for people living with (plw)ALS and plwFTD, and can identify cognitive deficits to a similar extent as traditional neuropsychological tests over time.