'Gist' processing of images enhances AI's breast cancer risk assessment

Machine learning--combined with radiologists' intuitive, or "gist" processing--is more accurate in assessing breast cancer risk than either approach alone. Deep learning models, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), enable automatic screening of life-threatening breast cancers at an earlier, more curable stage. However, CNNs rely on large annotated datasets for clinical diagnosis as input. Gist is the memory representation of the bottom-line meaning of an experience. Gist-based intuition is a human visual ability, an advanced form of reasoning that is mainly unconscious and develops with experience.