Topic-Based Measures of Conversation for Detecting Mild Cognitive Impairment

Conversation is a complex cognitive task that engages multiple aspects of cognitive functions to remember the discussed topics, monitor the semantic and linguistic elements, and recognize others' emotions. In this paper, we propose a computational method based on the lexical coherence of consecutive utterances to quantify topical variations in semi-structured conversations of older adults with cognitive impairments. Extracting the lexical knowledge of conversational utterances, our method generates a set of novel conversational measures that indicate underlying cognitive deficits among subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Our preliminary results verify the utility of the proposed conversation-based measures in distinguishing MCI from healthy controls.