Category Health/Medical

Artificial Intelligence to Detect Colorectal Cancer

A Tulane University researcher found that artificial intelligence can accurately detect and diagnose colorectal cancer from tissue scans as well or better than pathologists, according to a new study in the journal Nature Communications.

The study, which was conducted by researchers from Tulane, Central South University in China, the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Temple University, and Florida State University, was designed to test whether AI could be a tool to help pathologists keep pace with the rising demand for their services.

Pathologists evaluate and label thousands of histopathology images on a regular basis to tell whether someone has cancer...

Read More

Virus can Infect the Inner Ear, study finds

ear infection graphic
Caption: A new study from MIT and Massachusetts Eye and Ear provides evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect cells of the inner ear.
Credits:Image: Christine Daniloff, MIT

The prevalence of auditory symptoms in COVID-19 patients is unknown, but infection of the inner ears may be responsible for hearing and balance problems.

Many Covid-19 patients have reported symptoms affecting the ears, including hearing loss and tinnitus. Dizziness and balance problems can also occur, suggesting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may be able to infect the inner ear.

A new study from MIT and Massachusetts Eye and Ear provides evidence that the virus can indeed infect cells of the inner ear, including hair cells, which are critical for both hearing and balance...

Read More

Key to Resilient Energy-efficient AI/machine learning may reside in Human Brain

Synchronization of neural oscillations achieved by astrocytes
Synchronization of neural oscillations is achieved by astrocytes through information sharing among their glial network. Credit: Elizabeth Floresgomez Murray. All Rights Reserved.

A clearer understanding of how a type of brain cell, astrocytes function and can be emulated in the physics of hardware devices, may result in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that autonomously self-repairs and consumes much less energy than the technologies currently do, according to a team of Penn State researchers.

Astrocytes are named for their star shape and are a type of glial cell, which are support cells for neurons in the brain. They play a crucial role in brain functions such as memory, learning, self-repair and synchronization.

“This project stemmed from recent observations in...

Read More

Cause of Alzheimer’s Progression in the Brain

For the first time, researchers have used human data to quantify the speed of different processes that lead to Alzheimer’s disease and found that it develops in a very different way than previously thought. Their results could have important implications for the development of potential treatments.

The international team, led by the University of Cambridge, found that instead of starting from a single point in the brain and initiating a chain reaction which leads to the death of brain cells, Alzheimer’s disease reaches different regions of the brain early. How quickly the disease kills cells in these regions, through the production of toxic protein clusters, limits how quickly the disease progresses overall.

The researchers used post-mortem brain samples from Alzheimer’s pat...

Read More