A new study at Georgia State University's TReNDS Center may result in the early detection of debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and autism. The findings of this study were published in the Journal of Scientific Reports. A team of seven Georgia State scientists created a sophisticated computer program that could sift through massive amounts of brain imaging data and uncover unexpected patterns related to mental health disorders. The brain imaging data is produced by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which evaluate dynamic brain activity by detecting minute variations in blood flow. "We constructed artificial intelligence models to analyze the substantial volumes of information from fMRI," said Sergey Plis, the study's lead author and an associate professor of computer science and neuroscience at Georgia State University.