  Dementia diagnosis requires a series of different testing methods, which is
complex and time-consuming. Early detection of dementia is crucial as it can
prevent further deterioration of the condition. This paper utilizes a speech
recognition model to construct a dementia assessment system tailored for
Mandarin speakers during the picture description task. By training an
attention-based speech recognition model on voice data closely resembling
real-world scenarios, we have significantly enhanced the model's recognition
capabilities. Subsequently, we extracted the encoder from the speech
recognition model and added a linear layer for dementia assessment. We
collected Mandarin speech data from 99 subjects and acquired their clinical
assessments from a local hospital. We achieved an accuracy of 92.04% in
Alzheimer's disease detection and a mean absolute error of 9% in clinical
dementia rating score prediction.
