People can sense mental decline, says research powered by smartwatches

Key Points:

• A UC Davis study using smartwatches found that older adults’ moment-to-moment self-ratings of mental sharpness correspond with their actual cognitive performance, challenging previous assumptions about their self-assessment accuracy.
• The study involved 62 participants who rated their mental sharpness and mood four times daily over a week, followed by brief cognitive tests on the smartwatch, revealing declines in both perceived and objective cognition later in the day.
• Unlike traditional retrospective assessments, this real-time approach reduces recall bias and was not significantly influenced by mood, addressing concerns about the reliability of subjective cognitive complaints.
• Experts see potential in using wearable technology for early detection of cognitive changes, including those preceding dementia, by capturing data in everyday environments rather than clinical settings.
• Researchers caution that longer-term data collection is necessary to determine if smartwatch-based monitoring can reliably predict future cognitive decline, with further clinical trials planned to validate these methods before broader application.