It is unusual because it captures cognition during daily life rather than relying on a person\u2019s memory or a single office test using the ubiquitous mobile technology.<\/p>\n
![\"Brandon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SJM-L-SMARTWATCH-0818-2.jpg\")
Brandon Gavett, an Associate Professor of Neurology at UC Davis, is the study’s first author of a cognitive function study on older adults. (Photo courtesy UC Davis Health)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMeasuring change in a person\u2019s cognitive functioning is really hard,\u201d said Brandon Gavett, the study\u2019s first author.<\/p>\n
The real-time approach is innovative. When patients report cognitive issues, doctors rely on their memory of those events and screen them when they may be feeling better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of questions about how best to measure these complaints,\u201d said Sarah Tomaszewski Farias, a study author and professor of neurology at UC Davis.<\/p>\n
The study gave smartwatches to 62 participants who performed within normal ranges on standard cognitive tests. Four times a day for one week, the participants received a reminder on the watches to rate their mental sharpness and mood. After participants logged their perceptions, they completed brief tests on the watches measuring processing speed and attention. Researchers accounted for factors including age, mood and time of day. Both perceived mental sharpness and cognitive performance tended to decline later in the day.<\/p>\n
The findings, Gavett said, offer a new way to incorporate people\u2019s own perceptions of whether their cognition is better or worse than normal.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, researchers and doctors ask someone to retrospectively assess how their cognition has been over the past year, Farias said. Those assessments can be affected by recall bias. Asking people repeatedly how they feel in the moment could get around some of those limitations.<\/p>\n
Historically, there has also been skepticism that people can judge their own cognition. Mood, for example, is a complication. Depression can influence how people evaluate their memory and cognitive abilities.<\/p>\n
But Farias said one of the study\u2019s most encouraging findings was that the relationship between participants\u2019 perceived mental sharpness and their objective performance did not appear to be explained by mood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of the aspects of the study that surprised me the most,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n