A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Alan Turing Institute, constructed sophisticated machine learning tools capable of detecting dementia in its early stages. Published in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical, researchers took brain scans of numerous patients who subsequently developed a neurodegenerative illness, like Alzheimer's disease. With their machine learning algorithm, researchers were able to spot structural changes in the brain. According to the study, the AI-based algorithm was more than 80 percent accurate in predicting the onset of dementia among the participants. The algorithm also predicted the speed at which cognitive function declined.

Artificial intelligence could predict Alzheimer's disease in a patient years before a doctor does, according to a new study by McGill University in Montreal. Researchers from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute's Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory at McGill were able to predict dementia by using AI techniques and big data to build an algorithm that can recognize signs of dementia two years in advance. Researchers used a single amyloid PET scan of the brain of patients at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease for the study. The early prognosis would give patients and families a chance to plan and manage treatment and care of the disease, researchers said. "By using this tool, clinical trials could focus only on individuals with a higher likelihood of progressing to dementia within the time frame of the study," Dr. Serge Gauthier, co-lead author of the study, said in a statement.