SPONSORED RESEARCH: Capturing social and cognitive health dynamics as digital risk biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease

March 12, 2026

Read a Q&A Below: 

Eileen Graham, PhD, Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Medical Social Sciences (MSS) received a grant from the National Institute on Aging titled: “Capturing social and cognitive health dynamics as digital risk biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.” Emorie Beck, PhD (UC-Davis, prime site) serves as Principal Investigator on the project.

What are the aims of the project? 

The goal of this project is to better understand how social health in adulthood unfolds as a daily process and how these dynamics are associated with daily cognitive function and Alzheimer's Disease/Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) risk. We will develop ecological momentary assessment scales that will reliably differentiate the affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of social health. By characterizing the short-term dynamic associations among social health and cognitive health we will evaluate the between-person difference in temporal dynamics of social health as digital risk biomarkers of AD/ADRD. Together we will:

1. Develop mobile assessments of social health.
2. Delineate short-term cognitive impacts of daily social dynamics.
3. Generate individualized models of social determinants of AD/ADRD risk.

What are your next steps?

This is a five-year project that will involve the recruitment of a sample of 250 cognitively healthy middle-aged adults who will complete multiple bursts of a 10-day Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) study where momentary social isolation, loneliness, and cognitive function will be evaluated. This unique sample will help us better understand the nuances in how the dynamics between social health and cognitive health unfold at the daily and momentary levels. This project will also yield a set of open access, psychometrically optimized instruments for measuring social health in large-scale, intensive longitudinal EMA studies.

What do you hope will come out of this funded research?

The immediate goal is to better understand the daily dynamics between social health and cognitive health. As social isolation and loneliness are potentially modifiable risk factors, our goal is to identify individuals who may be at risk for cognitive dysfunction, impairment, and ADRD risk for potential intervention and risk mitigation.