Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41001422›Full record

ArticleAlzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

A vision transformer approach for fully automated and scalable dementia screening using clock drawing test images.

Michael B Bone, Morris Freedman, Sandra E Black, Daniel Felsky, Sanjeev Kumar, Bradley Pugh, Stephen C Strother, David F Tang-Wai, Maria Carmela Tartaglia, Bradley R Buchsbaum

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands). The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Computer Vision Scoring of Figure Copy and Recall.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Michael B BoneRotman Research Institute at Baycrest Toronto Ontario Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4644-6230
Morris FreedmanRotman Research Institute at Baycrest Toronto Ontario Canada.
Sandra E BlackDr. Sandra Black Centre for Brain Resilience and Recovery Sunnybrook Research Institute North York Ontario Canada.
Daniel FelskyDepartment of Medicine University of Toronto Toronto Ontario Canada.
Sanjeev KumarDepartment of Medicine University of Toronto Toronto Ontario Canada.
Bradley PughRotman Research Institute at Baycrest Toronto Ontario Canada.
Stephen C StrotherRotman Research Institute at Baycrest Toronto Ontario Canada.
David F Tang-WaiDepartment of Medicine University of Toronto Toronto Ontario Canada.
Maria Carmela TartagliaTanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases University of Toronto Toronto Ontario Canada.
Bradley R BuchsbaumRotman Research Institute at Baycrest Toronto Ontario Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThe clock drawing test (CDT) screens for dementia but requires trained scorers and lacks standardized criteria. Thus, we developed an automated vision transformer (ViT)-based diagnostic system with convolutional neural network preprocessing for analyzing hand-drawn CDT images.

methodsThe architecture implements fine-tuned ViT feature extraction with linear classification for dementia prediction. Training used the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) dataset (

resultsThe ViT approach predicted dementia with 76.5% balanced accuracy, outperforming human-scored features (74.3%) and existing deep learning models (MiniVGG = 73.3%, MobileNetV2 = 72.3%, relevance factor variational autoencoder = 69.1%) on the TDRA dataset. DISCUSSION: This pen-and-paper compatible diagnostic system enables scalable remote cognitive screening through automated CDT image analysis that is competitive with human-scored features, potentially increasing diagnostic accessibility for diverse populations across varied socioeconomic contexts. HIGHLIGHTS: The vision transformer model achieves 76.5% accuracy in dementia detection from clock drawing tests, outperforming human scoring and existing deep learning methods.Novel convolutional neural network-based preprocessing automatically handles challenging image quality issues like shadows, irrelevant markings, and improper cropping.The system requires only a photo of a hand-drawn clock test, enabling scalable remote screening accessible across socioeconomic contexts.A feature-extraction model trained on 54,027 samples demonstrates robust generalization to an independent clinical dataset of 862 patients.This fully automated approach eliminates the need for trained scorers while maintaining diagnostic accuracy above manual methods.

Indexed as

clock drawing testcognitive assessmentdeep learningdementia screeningvision transformer

Identifiers

PMID41001422
PMCPMC12457074

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.