Summary: The Technology for Aging Health – Digital Approaches (TAH-DA) study follows adults across five decades to collect continuous, real-world biometric data. By providing participants across North America with commercial wearable devices and tablets, this cross-sector effort aims to create robust, deployable algorithms that can detect early signs of cognitive decline through passive, continuous monitoring and targeted digital interventions.
Key Facts
- The Continuous Biometric Shield: Participants wear a Samsung Galaxy Watch continuously for one year to collect round-the-clock health metrics. Sensors capture heart rate, electrocardiogram (ECG) traces, blood pressure estimates, blood oxygen saturation, body composition (BIA), skin temperature, and detailed sleep-stage data.
- High-Sensitivity Digital Biomarkers: Mobile wearables can detect tiny, often subconscious shifts in daily routines—small changes in sleep structure, step counts, or heart-rate variability. Neuroscape and Samsung intend to translate these subtle behavioral signals into predictive digital biomarkers for early cognitive decline.
- Active Tablet Interventions: In addition to passive data collection, participants use a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 to complete evidence-based cognitive training. Neuroscape developed proprietary, scientifically designed neuro-games that specifically target cognitive control and executive function—areas that typically weaken with age.
- Rigorous Triple-Point Testing: To chart durable neuroplastic changes, participants complete a battery of custom digital cognitive assessments at three milestones: before the study begins, immediately after the intervention period, and again at a nine-month follow-up.
- Real-World Cognitive Mapping: Neuroscape investigators emphasize that assessing cognition in everyday life—outside tightly controlled laboratory settings—yields a more accurate and meaningful picture of how the brain changes across adulthood.
- Raising the Bar for Remote Medicine: Leaders from Neuroscape and Samsung describe TAH-DA as one of the most technologically ambitious remote clinical trials to date, advancing new operational standards for large-scale, non-invasive digital health interventions.
Source: UCSF
An innovative collaboration between UCSF’s Neuroscape research center and Samsung aims to measure decade-by-decade changes in brain health.
The Neuroscape Technology for Aging Health – Digital Approaches (TAH-DA) longitudinal study will use Samsung wearable technology to identify biometric predictors of cognitive decline over a one-year period. The goal is to combine continuous, passive sensor data with targeted digital training to improve detection and potentially influence cognitive trajectories.
Samsung supports translational health research through its Open Innovation Initiative, partnering with universities and research centers to accelerate development of next-generation digital health tools. TAH-DA is part of that effort to better understand the relationship between physiological signals, behavior, and cognitive health, and to explore how consumer devices can support wellness at scale.
TAH-DA began recruiting participants across North America in early 2026. The study aims to enroll 200 adults from each decade between ages 40 and 89. Enrolled participants receive a Galaxy Watch for a year of continuous biometric recording and a Galaxy Tab A9 for cognitive assessments and training exercises.
The Galaxy Watch gathers a broad set of measurements, including heart rate, ECG, blood pressure estimates, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), body composition via BIA, skin temperature, sleep staging, and daily activity counts like steps. These multimodal data streams will inform algorithm development to track and predict changes in brain health over time.
Participants also complete surveys, structured digital cognitive tests, and Neuroscape’s tablet-based interventions. These pieces together form a dataset that links passive biometric signals with active measures of cognition and behavior.
“With this rich dataset, we can identify which passive biometric measures align with cognitive assessments and evaluate whether our digital interventions boost cognitive function across the adult lifespan,” says Joaquin A. Anguera of Neuroscape. “Traditional lab-based studies use highly controlled stimuli; modern, ecologically valid approaches let us study cognition in real life and in real time.”
Everyday devices—smartphones and wearables—now capture detailed, high-sensitivity information about routines and physiology. Researchers at Samsung and UCSF aim to convert these continuous streams into validated digital biomarkers that signal early cognitive changes, enabling earlier detection and potentially timely interventions.
“We are thrilled to partner with Samsung on this research, which pairs industry-grade hardware with evidence-based cognitive training,” says Adam Gazzaley, executive director of Neuroscape. “This collaboration supports one of the most technologically ambitious remote trials we have conducted and will provide a unique view of human aging.”
How the study will work
TAH-DA uses Neuroscape’s remote clinical platform, Nexus, to run the study entirely online: recruitment, electronic consent, baseline diagnostics, intervention delivery, and follow-up assessments. The project also incorporates participant support tools, including an AI-enabled chatbot and virtual assistant for help and verification services to confirm identity during enrollment.
- Interested individuals register on the study website and complete eligibility screening and consent procedures.
- Enrolled participants are randomly assigned to either an active intervention group or a control group and are provided with a Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Tab A9.
- After receiving devices, participants begin tablet-based assessments and, if assigned, the cognitive training phase consisting of Neuroscape-designed games that target executive function and related skills.
- Participants complete the custom digital cognitive assessment battery at three time points: baseline, immediately post-intervention, and at a nine-month follow-up to evaluate lasting effects.
“Combining Neuroscape’s digital interventions with Samsung’s wearable platform expands the digital health ecosystem and helps us uncover behavioral and physiological predictors of cognitive decline,” says Praveen Raja, Vice President of Digital Health at Samsung Research America.
“With this study, we aim to raise standards for remote trials,” adds Theodore Zanto of Neuroscape. “Building on prior work, we continue to develop neurotechnology-driven predictors of cognition across adulthood and to test new digital treatments at scale.”
Key Questions Answered:
A: A digital biomarker is a set of physiological and behavioral measurements collected passively by consumer devices that can indicate changes in health. Early cognitive decline often appears as very small, real-world changes in daily routines—altered sleep patterns, slight changes in walking pace, or variations in resting heart rate. Continuous smartwatch data, when processed by advanced algorithms, can reveal these patterns and potentially predict memory or cognitive changes earlier than traditional clinical tests.
A: Many aging studies compare extremes of age and miss the gradual transitions that occur decade by decade. By enrolling 200 participants from each decade between 40 and 89, TAH-DA creates a lifespan framework that lets researchers pinpoint when specific biometric warning signs emerge and which age groups benefit most from targeted digital interventions.
A: No. These are clinically engineered, evidence-based digital interventions designed by UCSF Neuroscape. They differ from common commercial brain games by being mathematically structured to target neural networks responsible for executive function, working memory, and cognitive control—the faculties that tend to decline with age. Previous research with these games has shown neuroplastic effects, and this trial will test their impact at a larger population scale.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- The journal paper was reviewed in full.
- Additional context was added by editorial staff.
About this Alzheimer’s disease research news
Author: Suzanne Leigh
Source: UCSF
Contact: Suzanne Leigh – UCSF
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News