Home-based cognitive monitoring using embedded measures of verbal fluency in a computer word game

Verbal fluency is a standard neuropsychological test that measures the ease with which a person can produce words. It is commonly used in the diagnosis and characterization of cognitive disorders. In this paper, we describe a method for measuring a proxy for verbal fluency from embedded metrics within a computer word game. We evaluated our ability to monitor verbal fluency metrics over a period of one year in 30 elderly subjects by analyzing their computer game play. We found good correspondence between these computer metrics and the scores from standard verbal fluency assessments.