Advancing translational research through the interface of digital phenotyping and neuroimaging: A narrative review

Abstract

Instead of matching neuroimaging to static clinical targets, it is currently possible to use dynamic biobehavioral markers of cognition, functioning, behavior, and symptoms captured through a person’s smartphone. This paper reviews the published literature linking neuroimaging and smartphone data to understand the feasibility, methods, and potential of using smartphone sensing (often called digital phenotyping) as a target for neuroimaging. On June 30, 2020, a literature search was conducted on PubMed and PsycINFO for studies utilizing neuroimaging and smartphones tools. We excluded EEG focused studies, conference proceedings and abstracts. A snowball approach was applied to further locate papers. We utilized the NIMH’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework to organize results. 262 publications uncovered by the search were screened, and 14 papers were included in the final analysis. All studies differed in terms of the type of data collected from smartphones, type of neuroimaging used, areas of the brain measured, and population studied. The average duration before or after neuroimaging and smartphone assessments was 39 days. While it was not possible to directly compare studies, a majority of the included reports were classified under the Negative Valence Systems category in the RDoC framework. All studies reported statistically significant relationships between the information collected via the digital tool and the brain scans, and support feasibility of this method. The current literature connecting smartphone data and neuroimaging is nascent but holds the potential to better understand the ability of digital tools to inform brain structure and/or function. Although the protocols and studies from this search were heterogenous, results suggest feasibility and practicality of this work.