From battlefield to home: a mobile platform for assessing brain health

Cognitive testing batteries have been used for decades to diagnose deficits associated with conditions such as head injury, age-related cognitive decline, and stroke, and they have also been used extensively for educational evaluation and planning. Cognitive testing is generally office-based, administered by professionals, uses paper and pencil testing modalities, reports results as summary scores, and is a “one shot deal” whose primary objective is to identify the presence and severity of cognitive deficit. This paper explores innovative departures from historical cognitive testing strategies and paradigms. The report explores (I) a shift from disease diagnosis in the office setting to mobile tracking of cognitive health and wellness in any setting; (II) the strength of computer-based cognitive measures and their role in facilitating development of new computational methods; and (III) using cognitive testing to inform on individual-level outcomes over time rather than dichotomous metrics at a single point in time.