Researchers from New York City-based Mount Sinai have successfully used AI to examine structural and cellular features of human brain tissues to help determine the causes of Alzheimer's and other forms of cognitive impairment, according to a study published Sept. 21 in the journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications.
Researchers identified and analyzed the underlying architecture and cellular features of two regions in the brain, the medial temporal lobe and frontal cortex, with the aim of improving standard of postmortem brain assessment to identify signs of diseases.
The researchers then used a deep learning algorithm to examine slide images of human brain autopsy tissues from a group of more than 700 elderly donors to predict the presence or absence of cognitive impairment.
They found that the AI algorithm was able to predict the presence of cognitive impairment with "a modest accuracy that was significantly greater than chance."