The human brain consists of a lot that is an accurate predictor of the disease that could harm the human body in the future. Recently, a new AI model developed by researchers at the University of South California could be used to detect cognitive de functioning, which leads to diseases of degenerating the neurons in the human brain, like Alzheimer’s. The aging of the brain is considered one of the most important factors that degenerate the growth of neurons.
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How this AI model works
AI models can examine the scans through which the researchers can discover brain functioning by examining it properly and finding the early signs of cognitive disorders. Andrei Irimia, assistant professor of gerontology, biomedical engineering, quantitative & computational biology, and neuroscience at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology said that their study could find areas of the brain that are aging in ways that reflect a cognitive decline and may lead to Alzheimer’s. They have also elaborated on how tissues in the human body degenerate with people’s age at different levels and speeds. She and her team gathered MRIs ( Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of some 4,681 contestants with normal cognition, some who went on to develop the symptoms of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s in the future.
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By collecting this data, they created an AI model namely Neutral Network to find these people’s ages through MRIs. From this, they differentiated between the anticipated brain ages and the actual ages of these contestants and found that more the difference between these, the poorer their cognitive outcomes are, which shows the greater risk of Alzheimer’s.
The AI tool predicted the true ages of cognitively normal participants with a slight error of 2.3 years. Irimia clarified that this AI model could become a better predictor for finding the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. He said that earlier in doing this, they found difficulties in monitoring and managing the disease, but with the AI tool, they can find the risk in people much before they develop the symptoms.
How gender difference affects brains age
The new model also revealed how sex differences are related to brain age in which some parts of the brain age faster in males and others age faster in females. Males who have a greater risk of motor impairment due to Parkinson’s disease, experience faster aging in the brain’s motor function. Typical aging among females may be relatively slower in the brain’s right hemisphere.
The treatment for the risk
Through this research and the AI tool, Irimia wants people to be aware of possible risks of the disease to identify every single aging sign in an individual before time as this disease needs not just to be managed but to be curbed properly. She said,” Many people would be interested in knowing their true rate of aging. The information could give us hints about different lifestyle changes that a person could adopt to improve their overall health and well-being. Our methods could be used to design patient-centered treatment plans and personalized maps of brain aging that may be of interest to people with different health needs and goals.”
The study is provided by The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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