Science AI Journal
Medicine · Research topic

Open research questions in Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

3,297 gap statements mined from Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 14,154 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

Choosing where to publish on Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research? See the ranked Medicine journals.

What the literature leaves open

  • Dementia screening is complex and costly due to the lack of a single definitive diagnostic test. Retinal fundus imaging may not capture all relevant information for dementia diagnosis. The proposed approach requires large amounts of annotated data for training and validation.

    Explainable foundation model for dementia screening and risk stratification using retinal fundus images · 2026 · DOI

  • Observational studies have provided conflicting data on the risk of dementia related to metformin8 with some reporting an increased9,10 and some reporting decreased11 risk.

    Randomized metformin and cognitive outcomes in the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study · 2026 · DOI

  • Future work should prioritise co-design and usability testing with carers from diverse linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, followed by prospective validation and implementation studies examining diagnostic accuracy, time to diagnosis, clinician workload, carer burden, acceptability, cost and equity.

    Dementia Carers’ Perspectives on Paper- and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Based Assessment Tools: A Qualitative Think-Aloud Study Using the COM-B Framework · 2026 · DOI

  • Future work will focus on external validation using larger multi-center datasets such as OASIS-3, ADNI, AIBL, and NACC to further assess generalizability, robustness, and clinical applicability across diverse populations. Although the proposed framework achieved competitive predictive and calibration performance, the study was limited to a single OASIS cohort.

    Leakage-Aware Explainable Alzheimer’s Disease Detection Using Ensemble-Based Tree Models and Shapley Additive Explanations · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should build on these findings in several directions. First, larger and more comprehensive datasets, including greater and richer volumes of observational narrative descriptions, are needed to strengthen the robustness and generalizability of the analysis. Second, a dementia-specific lexicon should be developed and validated to ensure that terms are weighted appropriately in this context.

    Quality of Life of People Living With Dementia Residing in Nursing Homes: Secondary Analysis of Observational Data · 2026 · DOI

  • This corresponds with under-recording of subtyped diagnoses and could represent limited knowledge of the test’s discriminatory value, or reduced prioritisation of precision diagnosis.

    Factors influencing implementation of an Alzheimer’s disease blood test among UK old age psychiatrists: mixed-methods study using the theoretical domains framework · 2026 · DOI

  • Future work should investigate 3D CNN architectures capable of processing full volumetric scans, enabling models to capture three dimensional atrophy patterns that may be diagnostically relevant but invisible to 2D slice based classifiers.

    Deep learning feature fusion with transfer learning for Alzheimer’s disease classification · 2026 · DOI

  • Another limitation of the present study is the absence of neuroimaging data in our bvFTD sample, which precludes direct investigation of the neural substrates underlying our findings; consequently, the proposed neuroanatomical interpretation remains indirect and grounded in prior literature.

    Disrupted emotion–memory interactions in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia · 2026 · DOI

  • These aspects should be investigated in future studies involving both native Italian and CALD populations to further establish the clinical utility of the Italian RUDAS and CNTB.

    Translation and cultural adaptation of Rowland universal dementia assessment scale (RUDAS) and European cross-cultural neuropsychological test battery (CNTB) into Italian · 2026 · DOI

  • Although differences in tau burden have been linked to disease stage and age at onset, it remains unclear how such variation is reflected in tau-PET and plasma p-tau217.

    [18F]RO948 Tau PET in early and late onset Alzheimer’s disease: associations with plasma p-tau 217, atrophy and cognition · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research will focus on multi-center data validation, end-to-end architecture development, and multi-modal data expansion to further enhance the model’s generalization and clinical utility. Although the PSAM framework has shown significant progress in multiple aspects, it still faces certain limitations, such as a limited data source and reliance on preprocessing.

    A parallel state-space and attention-based multimodal framework for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis · 2026 · DOI

  • Future studies should address this potential confounding through age-stratified or age-matched analyses, interaction modeling (age, nWBV), and age-residualized structural measures, ideally in external cohorts. Solutions to problems of nonexistence of parameter estimates and sparse data bias in Poisson regression. Bias in odds ratios from logistic regression methods with sparse data sets.

    Limitations of MMSE in Cognitive Assessment: Revealing Latent Risk via Structural Brain Atrophy · 2026 · DOI

  • The biological mechanism between BMI and cognitive health remains unclear, but prior research has proposed several pathways linking high BMI to greater cognitive decline. Thus, it is warranted to use a longer exposure duration when interpreting the relationship between BMI and cognitive outcomes.

    Association between cumulative average BMI and cognitive decline: a 24-year cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • The findings are in line with previous studies on AD, but direct comparisons between genetic AD and FTD are warranted as their cognitive profiles and disease progression differ.

    Impact of awareness of genetic status on cognitive, behavioral, and neuropsychiatric outcomes in genetic frontotemporal dementia · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding of the factors that drive memory strategy use among people living with HIV. The study identifies a gap in understanding how impairments in metacognition may hinder the initiation of memory strategies. The increasing life expectancy of people living with HIV highlights the need to investigate cognitive impairment and memory strategy use.

    Memory Strategy Use, Cognition, and Metacognition Among People Aging with HIV · 2026 · DOI

  • The limited discriminative ability of the whole-brain GMV model suggests that reliance on global structural atrophy alone is insufficient to detect subtle early neuronal injury.

    Progressive modeling of multiscale hippocampal subfield structural representation improves the prediction performance of mild cognitive impairment in type 2 diabetes · 2026 · DOI

  • When examining individual lifestyle factors, previous studies have shown mixed results regarding the relationship between smoking and YOD, with some studies finding the correlation to be unclear.

    Association between unhealthy lifestyles and young-onset dementia: a nationwide cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • It would be of interest to conduct more research on the gut microbiota and microbiome-derived metabolites in connection to antioxidant status and cognitive outcomes.

    Superoxide dismutase and glutathione interact to determine cognitive outcome among people with subjective cognitive decline (SCD): a prospective study · 2026 · DOI

  • Specifically, internal model metrics, such as the entropy of attention distributions or generation perplexity, could be examined in relation to human neurophysiological markers, including the individual alpha peak frequency or EEG-based functional connectivity, for example.

    Architectural Constraints in LLM-Simulated Cognitive Decline: In Silico Dissociation of Memory Deficits and Generative Language as Candidate Digital Biomarkers · 2026 · DOI

  • Finally, the study did not account for genetic factors, which may influence the development and progression of MCI. Further studies to account for potential role and effect modification from genetic factors are warranted.

    Association of childhood meat consumption with late-life cognitive function: mediation by adult education and moderation by parental literacy · 2026 · DOI

  • This is in line with previous studies showing that structural changes in AD are not limited to the hippocampus and may also involve thalamic, striatal, cingulate, parietal, and insular regions.

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Cortical and Subcortical Volumetric Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease: Association with Clinical Severity · 2026 · DOI

  • Uncertainty regarding the clinical importance of observed treatment effects - Limited availability of therapies for Alzheimer disease - Uncertainty regarding the optimal treatment duration…

    Lecanemab use for early Alzheimer disease in Canada · 2026 · DOI

  • Subtypes of dementia could not be distinguished due to the lack of imaging data, - The study was retrospective, - The requirement for informed consent was waived due to the retrospective nature and anonymized…

    Explainable foundation model for dementia screening and risk stratification using retinal fundus images · 2026 · DOI

  • The present findings therefore support further investigation of multimodal integration as an adjunctive MCI risk-stratification strategy rather than as a standalone or AD-specific diagnostic test.

    A multimodal model for clinically defined MCI integrating plasma biomarkers and brain microstructural features: a dual-cohort external validation study · 2026 · DOI

  • The study was a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study - The sample size was limited to 174 PLWH - The study only included participants from an HIV/AIDS specialty clinic in the southeastern United…

    Memory Strategy Use, Cognition, and Metacognition Among People Aging with HIV · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Most recent work

Find a gap in your own Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research sub-topic

This page shows what the Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, search the Research Gap Finder: the search is free with a free account and lists the papers closest to your topic first. Unlocking that topic (50 credits, charged once) fills the comparison table from our 7.9M-paper local library and writes the gaps from its rows.

Open the Research Gap Finder →

Related topics in Medicine

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
4,869 open questions
Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
2,687 open questions
Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment
2,481 open questions
Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
2,366 open questions
Sports Performance and Training
2,276 open questions
Mosquito-borne diseases and control
2,124 open questions
Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
2,117 open questions
Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria
2,090 open questions
Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Dementia screening is complex and costly due to the lack of a single definitive diagnostic test (“Explainable foundation model for dementia screening and risk stratification…”, 2026); (2) Future work will focus on external validation using larger multi-center datasets such as OASIS-3, ADNI, AIBL, and NACC to further assess generalizability, robustness, and clinical applicability across diverse populations (“Leakage-Aware Explainable Alzheimer’s Disease Detection Using Ensemble-Based…”, 2026); (3) Future research should build on these findings in several directions (“Quality of Life of People Living With Dementia Residing in Nursing Homes:…”, 2026); (4) Future work should investigate 3D CNN architectures capable of processing full volumetric scans, enabling models to capture three dimensional atrophy patterns that may be diagnostically relevant but invisible to 2D slice based classifiers (“Deep learning feature fusion with transfer learning for Alzheimer’s disease…”, 2026); (5) Although differences in tau burden have been linked to disease stage and age at onset, it remains unclear how such variation is reflected in tau-PET and plasma p-tau217 (“[18F]RO948 Tau PET in early and late onset Alzheimer’s disease: associations…”, 2026). 3,297 gap statements have been mined from Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 14,154 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

Tools for your next paper

Gaps & Literature SearchFind open questions in any field — 1,100,000+ open gaps mined from our own library.Pre-CheckIs your paper ready? Acceptance odds for top, mid and open/emerging journals, in seconds.Journal FinderA ranked shortlist of target journals from a 17,500-venue index.Duplicate Publication CheckerCheck for prior publication across 7 sources and our local library.Citation GeneratorFreeA DOI or title → APA, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS. No signup.Graphical Abstract MakerFreeTurn your findings into a colorblind-safe graphical abstract.

How Pre-Check worksHow AI Review works

Compare the category — Honest roundups of the AI research tools, ours listed alongside the alternatives.

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.