Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning = Deep Learning EEG

How can we apply AI and Machine Learning to EEG data? There is evidence that EEG characteristics can be used as an indication (a biomarker) of some diseases. For example, in a project funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation, our findings indicate that there are significant differences in the EEG data of different RBD patients compared to healthy populations. More specifically, RBD subjects as a group had larger power in the frontal EEG electrodes than healthy subjects. Again taken as a group. Therefore, there is statistical significance in the difference between one group and the other. 


However, if we want to use this as a means for diagnosis, we need to take into account that diagnostic decisions are made on individuals, not on groups. For this to happen we need a decision system. We would input the data of a particular individual subject. Then we would get an answer on whether this individual is likely to develop, for instance, a neurodegenerative disease. Here is where Machine Learning and Deep Learning come into play.


For more information about BCI/EEG press here.


Friday, March 02, 2018

Open Database of Live Human Brain Cells

The Allen Institute for Brain Science has added the first data from human nerve cells to the Allen Cell Types Database: a publicly available tool for researchers to explore and understand the building blocks of the human brain. This first release includes electrical properties from approximately 300 living cortical neurons of different types derived from 36 patients, with accompanying 3D reconstructions of their shape or anatomy for 100 cells, and computer models simulating the electrical behavior of these neurons. 


The database will also contain gene expression profiles, based on measurements of all genes used by 16,000 individual cells, from three adult human brains. Data from these human cells provide an unparalleled window into the intricate components, circuitry and function of the human neocortex, including features that make our brains unique.

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.