Large cognitive health study links speech patterns with brain aging - The Brighter Side of News

A study of 2,928 Spanish-speaking adults linked older-appearing speech profiles with several measures of brain and biological aging. Larger speech-age gaps were associated with poorer cognition, dementia diagnoses and greater social adversity, although patterns varied across groups. The research does not establish whether speech recordings can predict future dementia or track an individual’s aging rate over time. The pace, pitch and word choices of everyday speech may carry clues about aging that extend beyond a person’s voice. A large Latin American study found that older-appearing speech profiles were associated with brain aging, memory difficulties and molecular markers of biological aging. The findings, published in Science Advances, come from 2,928 Spanish-speaking participants across Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The research involved the Multi-Partner Consortium to Expand Dementia Research in Latin America, known as ReDLat. Senior author Agustin Ibanez is a professor at Trinity College Dublin’s Global Brain Health Institute and School of Medicine.