Acoustic speech features are associated with late-life depression and apathy symptoms: Preliminary findings

Daniel Harlev, Shir Singer, Maya Goldshalger, Noham Wolpe, Eyal Bergmann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Late-life depression (LLD) is a heterogenous disorder related to cognitive decline and neurodegenerative processes, raising a need for the development of novel biomarkers. We sought to provide preliminary evidence for acoustic speech signatures sensitive to LLD and their relationship to depressive dimensions. METHODS: Forty patients (24 female, aged 65–82 years) were assessed with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Vocal features were extracted from speech samples (reading a pre-written text) and tested as classifiers of LLD using random forest and XGBoost models. Post hoc analyses examined the relationship between these acoustic features and specific depressive dimensions. RESULTS: The classification models demonstrated moderate discriminative ability for LLD with receiver operating characteristic = 0.78 for random forest and 0.84 for XGBoost in an out-of-sample testing set. The top classifying features were most strongly associated with the apathy dimension (R2 = 0.43). DISCUSSION: Acoustic vocal features that may support the diagnosis of LLD are preferentially associated with apathy. Highlights: The depressive dimensions in late-life depression (LLD) have different cognitive correlates, with apathy characterized by more pronounced cognitive impairment. Acoustic speech features can predict LLD. Using acoustic features, we were able to train a random forest model to predict LLD in a held-out sample. Acoustic speech features that predict LLD are preferentially associated with apathy. These results indicate a predominance of apathy in the vocal signatures of LLD, and suggest that the clinical heterogeneity of LLD should be considered in development of acoustic markers.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere70055
JournalAlzheimer's and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2025
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • acoustic vocal features
  • aging
  • apathy
  • classification models
  • late-life depression

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Clinical Neurology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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