Recently, a breakthrough has been made by the research team at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brighan Women's Hospital, where they have successfully developed an innovative tool based on artificial intelligence (AI) that can predict the risk of brain degeneration years before patients develop obvious symptoms. This research, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, offers new possibilities for early intervention and treatment. The AI tool enables accurate predictions by analyzing electroencephalography (EEG) data during sleep and capturing subtle changes in brain activity.
The research team conducted a five-year follow-up study of 281 women over 65 years old and cognitively functioning. In the second round of assessment, 96 participants developed cognitive impairment. By extracting brainwave patterns in EEG data, the researchers used AI technology to detect slight changes in gamma wave frequency during deep sleep. The results show that the AI tool successfully identified 85% of individuals who eventually experienced cognitive degeneration, and the overall prediction accuracy rate was as high as 77%. This finding provides a valuable window of time for early intervention.
"This technology could revolutionize the way we prevent dementia," said study lead author Dr Hahayech. He further explained: "By combining advanced AI technologies, information theory tools and sophisticated analytical methods, we are able to capture subtle changes in brain wave patterns in sleep within the years before symptoms appear. This provides unprecedented opportunities for early intervention."
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 55 million people worldwide are affected by dementia. Several studies have shown that patients’ behavioral and physiological functions may have changed before cognitive impairment occurs. Therefore, identifying these early signals is crucial to implementing effective interventions. Through this early detection system of AI tool, high-risk people can adopt active lifestyle adjustments before cognitive impairment occurs, such as strengthening exercise, maintaining psychological activity, and maintaining a balanced diet, thereby delaying or preventing the occurrence of dementia.
Despite the remarkable results of this study, the researchers also stressed that larger and diverse population studies are needed in the future to verify and expand this finding. This will help further improve the accuracy of predictions and provide more personalized intervention options for different populations.