A new machine learning model to isolate the effects of age in predicting dementia

Researchers at Toronto-based company WinterLight Labs have recently devised a machine learning method of predicting dementia that prioritizes particular variables when analyzing data, which could help to isolate the effects of potentially confounding factors. Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia are a major worldwide challenge, leading to the death of one out of three seniors in the U.S. alone. While the causes of these diseases have not yet been fully grasped, they can have detrimental effects on speech, memory, orientation and other important cognitive abilities. WinterLight Labs is developing AI-based tools that could help detect and monitor Alzheimer's disease, aphasia, dementia, and other conditions that affect humans' cognitive abilities. The company has achieved very promising results, developing tools that can classify subtypes of aphasia with up to 100 percent accuracy and dementia with over 82 percent accuracy.