Sponsored Research: Advancing Science of Remote Neurocognition
May 16, 2025
Read a Q&A Below
In April 2025, Emily H. Ho, PhD and the team at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Medical Social Sciences (MSS) received a grant through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program Office to conduct a study to assess the reliability and validity of the NIH Toolbox Participant/Examiner V3 App. Co-investigators include Berivan Ece, PhD, and Courtney Blackwell, PhD. External consultants include Debra MacKenzie at University of New Mexico. Competitively awarded, the Opportunities and Infrastructures Fund is an NIH-funded grant mechanism to support early career investigators on research projects that can introduce new research, tools, and technologies in the ECHO Program.
What are the aims of the project?
This project builds on a previous study recently published in Pediatrics, which empirically validated the reliability and validity of anthropometric outcomes when administered remotely. We have recently developed a remote version of the NIH Toolbox for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIH Toolbox), the NIHTB Participant/Examiner V3 App. We have preliminary evidence showing that the remote NIHTB produces scores that are statistically indistinguishable from those administered in person.
Yet, less is known about the feasibility of remote assessment of neurocognition in younger ages (i.e., 3 to 7), a period where there is rapid neurodevelopment growth. The current investigation will validate the NIHTB P/E V3 App in this age group, recruiting from the Chicagoland community, in both English and Spanish, through 1) comparing performance on the NIHTB P/E V3 App with the in-person NIHTB in two separate samples of English and Spanish-speaking children, respectively, and 2) collecting feasibility from user feedback from examiners and caregivers to determine potential implementation challenges faced.
What are your next steps?
We will recruit from the Chicagoland community, participants age 3-7 years old, to take both the in-person and remote version of the NIHTB V3, counterbalancing the order 1:1. We will investigate whether there is similar validity and reliability for both Spanish and English speakers for the younger age group. We will also collect feasibility data.
What do you hope will come out of this funded research?
There is a recent burgeoning interest in the science of remote assessment operations. Already, the work this team has previously conducted is currently being implemented in large-scale studies like the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. The findings from this current study can allow populations which are typically harder to recruit from to be assessed, rapidly scaling up the adoption and implementation of remote assessment in longitudinal and national research studies. Ultimately, the findings may support broader implementation of remote assessments for many central outcomes germane to human health.
We hope this research will support the broader uptake of remote assessment and decentralized study protocols in other areas of health research. Remote neurocognitive assessment can also be relevant to researchers interested in other clinical groups across the lifespan, including those with disabilities as well as those who are in rural regions.
NIH Toolbox Participant/Examiner V3 App Demo Testing by Study Personnel