Study of Tissue Variation and Analysis of MR Brain Images using Optimized Multilevel Threshold and Deep CNN Features

Insights

Grey matter variations are key indicators of dementia progression, outperforming other brain tissues. This study uses advanced imaging and AI to accurately diagnose neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroimaging
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Biomedical Engineering

Background:

  • Dementia, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), presents a significant global socio-economic challenge.
  • Understanding the pathological variations in brain tissues is crucial for timely diagnosis and effective treatment strategies.
  • Magnetic resonance (MR) images from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database were utilized for analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate subtle brain tissue variations for improved discrimination between normal cognition, MCI, and AD.
  • To develop and validate an automated framework for diagnosing neurodegenerative disorder progression.

Main Methods:

  • Multilevel Tsallis-based Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) was employed for accurate brain tissue segmentation (white matter, grey matter, cerebrospinal fluid).
  • Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) extracted deep features from segmented tissues.
  • Principal Component Analysis (PCA) reduced feature dimensionality, followed by Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification.

Main Results:

  • The Tsallis-based GWO demonstrated reliable tissue segmentation for normal, MCI, and AD subjects.
  • Deep features provided superior discrimination compared to conventional feature sets.
  • The classification accuracy for white matter, grey matter, and cerebrospinal fluid reached 77%, 80.22%, and 78.7%, respectively.

Conclusions:

  • Grey matter (GM) variation is a more sensitive indicator of dementia progression than aging effects.
  • The proposed framework effectively distinguishes between normal, MCI, and AD, offering a promising tool for neurodegenerative disorder diagnosis.

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