Illicit drug use and psychedelics
Speech reflects real-time changes in cognition, emotion, and motor control affected by illicit drug use. Redenlab’s tools offer objective endpoints for monitoring treatment progress, relapse risk, and the neurobehavioural impact of substance use across time.
Speech biometrics in stimulants and psychedelics
Illicit drug use remains a major public health issue, contributing to cognitive, psychiatric, and neurological impairments that can persist long after substance exposure. Many individuals experience altered speech fluency, slowed articulation, and disrupted prosody, which are markers of executive dysfunction, emotional blunting, and neurotoxic effects. These changes are rarely captured in clinical care or trials, yet directly impact communication, social function, and recovery trajectories. Redenlab delivers sensitive, scalable speech analysis tools that quantify neurobehavioural effects of substance use, enabling real-time assessment of function, relapse risk, and therapeutic response.
Speech analytics in illicit drug use research
Captures neurocognitive impact
Measures speech rate, fluency, prosody, and voice quality to index executive function, affective state, and neurotoxicity.
Supports intervention and relapse studies
Tracks change across detoxification, behavioural therapy, and pharmacological trials in substance use disorder (SUD) populations.
Passive and active data collection
Enables frequent, low-burden capture of speech samples via mobile or in-clinic environments.
Linked to real-world function
Speech changes align with impairments in decision-making, emotional regulation, and social interaction, which are core domains in SUD recovery.
Validated in psychiatric and neurologic comorbidities
Tools applicable across populations with polysubstance use, dual diagnoses, and long-term neurocognitive sequelae.
Redenlab’s experience in illicit drug use and neurobehavioural research
Redenlab has contributed to a growing body of research examining the neurocognitive and motor effects of illicit substance use, particularly its impact on speech and language as functional markers of brain health. Across multiple peer-reviewed studies, our team has implemented advanced speech analytics to quantify the subtle but measurable changes in communication that accompany chronic drug exposure, relapse risk, and recovery.
In populations with long-term methamphetamine use, Redenlab-supported research has shown persistent impairments in speech rate, articulatory control, and prosody, features that correlate with cognitive decline, emotional dysregulation, and motor slowing (Pearson-Dennett et al., 2013, Todd et al., 2016). Subsequent work has expanded to populations using MDMA, opioids, cannabis, and polydrug combinations, revealing consistent alterations in verbal fluency, response initiation, and timing measures (Todd et al., 2019, Vogel et al., 2021).
Redenlab’s tools have been employed in both acute and long-term studies, including neuroimaging-linked investigations that integrate speech measures with brain structural and functional data (Pearson-Dennett et al., 2019). Speech timing and variability have also been used to differentiate persistent neurocognitive impairment from recovery, supporting their potential as digital biomarkers of neurotoxicity and treatment response (Pearson-Dennett et al., 2014).
With experience in longitudinal designs, youth and adult cohorts, and clinical trial-aligned outcomes, Redenlab is uniquely positioned to support substance use research. Our validated acoustic and linguistic endpoints offer scalable, sensitive tools to track functional recovery, risk of relapse, and the broader cognitive consequences of illicit drug exposure.
