LLM-Driven Daily Conversation for Cognitive Health in Older Adults

This study will develop and test a daily conversation platform that uses a large language model, a type of artificial intelligence, to support cognitive health in older adults at high risk of dementia.

The platform will guide participants through voice-based conversations about topics that interest them. The conversations are designed to engage memory, attention, language, planning and problem-solving, and the ability to understand social situations. The platform will also analyze conversation data and create a report describing the participant's cognitive performance.

The study has two stages. In the first stage, 15 participants will test the platform through two 20-minute conversation sessions. This group will include healthy younger adults, older adults with normal cognitive function, and older adults with cognitive difficulties. Participants will provide feedback on how easy and acceptable the platform is to use.

In the second stage, 60 older adults at high risk of dementia will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. The groups will receive either conversation-based cognitive activities using the platform, interest-based news reading activities, or weekly health education while waiting to receive the intervention. The study activities will continue for 12 weeks. Researchers will compare changes in cognitive function, emotional well-being, loneliness, social connection, and user experience before and after the study.

The main goals are to learn whether the platform is practical and acceptable for home use and whether it may help support cognitive and psychosocial health.