Alzheimer's screening tests are commonly used by doctors to diagnose the patient's condition and stage as early as possible. Most of these tests are based on pen-paper interaction and do not embrace the advantages provided by new technologies. This paper proposes novel Alzheimer's screening tests based on virtual environments and game principles using new immersive technologies combined with advanced Human Computer Interaction (HCI) systems. These new tests are focused on the immersion of the patient in a virtual room, in order to mislead and deceive the patient's mind. In addition, we propose two novel variations of Turing Test proposed by Alan Turing as a method to detect dementia. As a result, four tests are introduced demonstrating the wide range of screening mechanisms that could be designed using virtual environments and game concepts. The proposed tests are focused on the evaluation of memory loss related to common objects, recent conversations and events; the diagnosis of problems in expressing and understanding language; the ability to recognise abnormalities; and to differentiate between virtual worlds and reality, or humans and machines.The proposed screening tests were evaluated and tested using both patients and healthy adults in a comparative study with state-of-the-art Alzheimer's screening tests. The results show the capacity of the new tests to distinguish healthy people from Alzheimer's patients.

Dementia is a syndrome that is characterised by the decline of different cognitive abilities. A high rate of deaths and high cost for detection, treatments, and patients care count amongst its consequences. Although there is no cure for dementia, a timely diagnosis helps in obtaining necessary support, appropriate medication, and maintenance, as far as possible, of engagement in intellectual, social, and physical activities. The early detection of Alzheimer Disease (AD) is considered to be of high importance for improving the quality of life of patients and their families. In particular, Virtual Reality (VR) is an expanding tool that can be used in order to assess cognitive abilities while navigating through a Virtual Environment (VE). The paper summarises common AD screening and diagnosis techniques focusing on the latest approaches that are based on Virtual Environments, behaviour analysis, and emotions recognition, aiming to provide more reliable and non-invasive diagnostics at home or in a clinical environment. Furthermore, different AD diagnosis evaluation methods and metrics are presented and discussed together with an overview of the different datasets.

Abstract. Alzheimer Disease (AD) early detection is considered of high importance for improving the quality of life of patients and their families. Amongst all the different approaches for AD detection, significant work has been focused on emotion analysis through facial expressions, body language or speech. Many studies also use the electroencephalogram in order to capture emotions that patients cannot physically express. Our work introduces an emotion recognition approach using facial expression and EEG signal analysis. A novel dataset was created specifically to remark the autobiographical memory deficits of AD patients. This work uses novel EEG features based on quaternions, facial landmarks and the combination of them. Their performance was evaluated in a comparative study with a state of the art methods that demonstrates the proposed approach.

Cognitive behaviour analysis is considered of high importance with many innovative applications in a range of sectors including healthcare, education, robotics and entertainment. In healthcare, cognitive and emotional behaviour analysis helps to improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Amongst all the di↵erent approaches for cognitive behaviour analysis, significant work has been focused on emotion analysis through facial expressions using depth and EEG data. Our work introduces an emotion recognition approach using facial expressions based on depth data and landmarks. A novel dataset was created that triggers emotions from long or short term memories. This work uses novel features based on a non-linear dimensionality reduction, t-SNE, applied on facial landmarks and depth data. Its performance was evaluated in a comparative study, proving that our approach outperforms other state-of-the-art features.