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Dementia Language Models: a generalizable and controllable representation of cognitive impairment
Peled-Cohen L, Shmidov A, Rein N, Shapira E, Calderon N, Tikochinski R, Zeltzer E, Nathan T et al.. bioRxiv, 2026-09-24
Topic: Brain imaging, connectivity and assessment
We introduce Dementia Language Models (DeLMs) – generalizable and controllable representations of cognitive impairment through language – alongside an evaluation framework for establishing their validity and clinical grounding. DeLMs created by fine-tuning large language models on a small clinical corpus successfully generated patient-like narratives across unseen tasks, received predicted Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores in the impaired range, and produced narratives that neurologists identified with accuracy comparable to real transcripts. The models’ internal representations, as well as their non-linguistic decision-making, supported mild cognitive impairment detection in unseen cohorts. The effect was controllable: moving from Healthy toward Dementia in weight space progressively worsened language and predicted MMSE scores while increasing dementia probability. DeLMs could support clinician training, hypothesis generation, and scalable experimentation, reserving patient involvement for where it is truly needed.
Key findings
- We introduce Dementia Language Models (DeLMs) – generalizable and controllable representations of cognitive impairment through language – alongside an evaluation framework for establishing their validity and clinical grounding.
- DeLMs created by fine-tuning large language models on a small clinical corpus successfully generated patient-like narratives across unseen tasks, received predicted Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores in the impaired range, and produced narratives that neurologists identified with accuracy comparable to real transcripts.
- The models’ internal representations, as well as their non-linguistic decision-making, supported mild cognitive impairment detection in unseen cohorts.
- The effect was controllable: moving from Healthy toward Dementia in weight space progressively worsened language and predicted MMSE scores while increasing dementia probability.
- DeLMs could support clinician training, hypothesis generation, and scalable experimentation, reserving patient involvement for where it is truly needed.
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 16/100
Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. It scored 21 on the same rubric, but non-peer-reviewed sources are capped at 16, so it shows as 16. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 13 of the 62 points we could judge it on, which is 21 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 2 / 10 | Tier 4 — not a peer-reviewed journal (bioRxiv) |
| Journal's citation record | 0 / 4 | Not a journal article, so the journal's record does not count |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 4 / 10 | Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. Hosted on a preprint server. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Points | 13 / 62 | Scored on 12 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 13 of the 62 points we could judge it on is 21 out of 100. |
| Total | 21 / 100 | Capped to 16 because this is not a peer-reviewed article. |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Peled-Cohen, L., Shmidov, A., Rein, N., Shapira, E., Calderon, N., Tikochinski, R., et al. (2026). Dementia Language Models: a generalizable and controllable representation of cognitive impairment. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.09.16.752129
Vancouver
Peled-Cohen L, Shmidov A, Rein N, Shapira E, Calderon N, Tikochinski R, et al. Dementia Language Models: a generalizable and controllable representation of cognitive impairment. bioRxiv. 2026. doi:10.64898/2026.09.16.752129.
BibTeX
@article{peledcohen2026-8c02bbe3,
author = {Peled-Cohen, L. and Shmidov, A. and Rein, N. and Shapira, E. and Calderon, N. and Tikochinski, R. and Zeltzer, E. and Nathan, T. and others},
title = {{Dementia Language Models: a generalizable and controllable representation of cognitive impairment}},
journal = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.16.752129},
url = {https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.09.16.752129}
}
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