AI Can Detect Signals for Mental Health Assessment

AI can detect signals that are informative about mental health from questionnaires and brain scans. A study published today by an interdisciplinary collaboration, directed by Denis Engemann from Inria, demonstrates that machine learning from large population cohorts can yield "proxy measures" for brain-related health issues without the need for a specialist's assessment. The researchers took advantage of the UK Biobank, one of the world's largest and most comprehensive biomedical databases, that contains detailed and secure health-related data on the UK population. This work is published in the open access journal GigaScience. Mental health issues have been increasing worldwide, with the WHO determining that there has been a 13% increase in mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders between 2007 and 2017.