A Tel Aviv University (TAU) study, led by Yuval Nir of the TAU Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to non-invasively detect a specific form of abnormal brain activity associated with dementia and other disorders such as epilepsy.
Recently, this team of scientists received a research grant from Corundum Neuroscience, an Israeli investment fund specialized in innovative neuroscience research. The goal of the research is to improve the diagnosis of early-stage dementia and other neurological disorders while the patient sleeps.
While we sleep, a form of brain activity known as paroxysmal discharges (PD) occurs in the brain. As it occurs deep in the brain, its detection and measurement is complex without invasive procedures.
TAU researchers, however, developed a way to use machine learning to identify subtle signals seen in the brain when paroxysmal discharges occur.
Nir explained that “there is currently no objective tool with the necessary sensitivity to non-invasively detect and quantify the signatures of brain activity that we are investigating.”
In addition, he added that his “goal is to combine research on brain activity during sleep with machine learning, laying the foundation for the measurement of abnormal brain states in dementia during sleep and, ultimately, validating biomarkers for a wide range of applications.” range of neurological disorders.