An interdisciplinary scientific study, launched more than a decade ago at the intersection of neuroscience, linguistics, and artificial intelligence, has received the ISCA Best Research Paper Award 2026. Among the study’s authors is Prof. Laura Calzà, Scientific Director of IRET Foundation.
The study “Linguistic features and Automatic Classifiers for identifying Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia”, authored by Laura Calzà, Gloria Gagliardi, Rema Rossini Favretti, and Fabio Tamburini, received this prestigious international recognition at the Interspeech 2026 conference, held in Sydney.
Published in 2021 in the journal Computer Speech and Language, the study was recognized as the best original research paper published in the journal during the 2021–2025 period.
What makes this research particularly significant is how far ahead of its time it was. As early as 2014, when applications of artificial intelligence in this field were still largely unexplored, the research team had already embarked on an interdisciplinary effort to investigate the potential of automated language analysis to identify possible signs of cognitive decline.
By applying machine learning techniques and analyzing specific linguistic features, the study explored new approaches to distinguishing mild cognitive impairment and dementia, opening up promising avenues for the development of accessible, noninvasive screening tools. The research highlights the value of integrating expertise from different disciplines, from computational linguistics to neuroscience, to address complex challenges in healthcare.
This recognition celebrates not only the scientific quality of the research but also the power of interdisciplinary collaboration to anticipate new frontiers of knowledge.
