Amsterdam, August 5, 2021-George Perry, Ph.D. has appointed Guest Editors Drs. David Libon, Ganesh Baliga, Rod Swenson and Rhoda Au to produce a mini-forum: Digital Neuropsychological Assessment: New Technology for Measuring Subtle Neuropsychological Behavior. "I welcome this special collection of papers that demonstrates how digital technology can calculate potentially sensitive clinical neurocognitive biomarkers." said George Perry, Ph.D. A collection of 5 papers have been assembled presenting data on tests such as the Backwards Digit Span test, the Digit Symbol Substitution test, digital speech analysis, and the widely used Digital Clock Drawing test. Dr. Perry stated further, "The data presented here open up the possibility of being able to flag emerging illnesses such as mild cognitive impairment or dementia, including Alzheimer's Disease or Vascular Dementia, before patients actually meet diagnostic criteria."

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Before digital assessment technology was available, Edith Kaplan, Ph.D., a pioneer of neuropsychological assessment, championed the analysis of errors and the process by which tests are completed as a means of understanding brain and cognition. She emphasized, "If they want numbers, provide numbers that are meaningful." The guest editors concluded, "As digital assessment methods mature, identification of persons with emergent neurodegenerative and other neurological illness at an earlier stage may be possible."