New Research Shows How Deep Learning Can Help Advance Neural Degeneration Studies

Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning models can help advance research on neural degeneration, showing its capabilities in identifying and categorizing its forms on a model organism. Using the organism Caenorhabditis elegans or the roundworm - a 1-millimeter near-transparent nematode - researchers used deep learning to conduct a quantitative image-based analysis of neural degeneration patterns observed in the PVD neuron of the organism. Researchers from North Carolina State University have detailed their work in the journal BMC Biology, September 23. "Researchers want to study the mechanisms that drive neural degeneration, with the long-term goal of finding ways to slow or prevent the degeneration associated with age or disease," explained Adriana San Miguel in a NCSU news release. San Miguel serves as the corresponding author on the study, as well as a chemical and biomolecular assistant professor.